A Different Path
by Oseddian
Summary: The road down the dark side is paved with pain and turmoil, but leads to unlimited power. Anakin Skywalker, found at the age of five by Darth Sidious, walks down this path. Yet as the clone wars begin, the trail becomes harder and harder to follow, especially when the champions of the light side begin to plant thoughts of a better future in the young Sith Apprentice.
1. Chapter 1

Anakin grips his mother's hand as much for his own comfort as for hers as they walk down a long, dusty alleyway towards Wattos shop. The rising sun is just starting to warm up the cold air left behind from the night, it streams through the gaps in the run-down buildings around him. It's his fifth birthday, but he still has to get up at dawn to go to work. All of his free friends didn't have to get up at dawn on their birthday, which annoys him. It isn't fair and he doesn't understand why he has to when nobody else has. He would never admit it to anyone but he even cried a little bit when Schmi had made him get up to leave.

But as she saw the tears swell in his eyes she wrapped her soft, loving arms around her innocent little son and promised him that she would make it up to him when they got home. Her warm embrace made him feel better, like it always did when he was upset. A little flicker of something Anakin didn't yet understand told him she was just as upset as him, so he took her hand and followed her out the door with the bravest face he could muster.

Now all he has to do is to wait until seven, when they get home, and then he can have some real fun. He saw the present his mom had tried to hide from him in her room. She is keeping it under a thick old blanket but he could see the edges of a box sticking through the fabric. He is giddy with excitement, the fact that she won't even tell him what his surprise is makes him even more so.

They round the corner and Wattos junk shop comes into view, he wonders what menial job he will be tasked with completing today. His mother squeezes his hand protectively as they cross the road, not that Anakin can't look after himself. According to him, he is perfectly capable of crossing even the busiest intersections independently. Mom thinks otherwise.

She presses the grimy button that opens the door to the shop and leads him inside. The smell of oil and rust hits him immediately. He knows this place well, probably even better than he knows his own home; it's where he spends most of his day, every day.

"Your here at last, what took you so long eh?" Watto asks with a thick accent as he hovers behind the counter.

"I'm sorry, we were held up when a man asked us for directions to the local pod racing track, isn't that right Ani" she lies.

Anakin is momentarily confused, so he looks up at his mother with an expression of unexpected puzzlement. They are late because he spent a good ten minutes crying about having to go to work on his birthday. She smiles down at him reassuringly, so he decides to go along with his mother. He turns his head towards Watto and nods in agreement.

"Ah, those off worlders always wanna go to check out the pod racin' eh?" Watto remarks with a disapproving shake of his head. "Their wastin' all of their money betting when they could be spending it here" he says dejectedly.

Anakin remembers that Watto gambles too, and that he owns them because he won them in a bet. He suddenly feels the need to share this fact but as he draws in a deep breath to speak with his mother squeezes his hand tightly as if silently telling him to stay quiet.

Watto rounds the counter and begins rummaging through a box of bolts.

"Just don't be late again or I'll take your rations away eh? Ani you sort through all these, I want all the different types of bolts in their own box. Schmi you get to cleaning up that mess in the back room"

"Of course" Schmi says. She lets go of Anakin's hand to plant her own on his shoulder. She squeezes it one more time before leaving to carry out her task.

Anakin does that thing he can't describe to anyone as his mother's emotions suddenly appear in his mind. He feels her anxiety dribble wash away because Watto didn't punish them, and he feels her determination to do her job to the best of her ability surface as she gets to work.

Wishing that the day would go a bit quicker, he wastes his pent up energy by skipping over to the boxes he has to sort, a quick glance at them tells Anakin that there are at least a hundred different types of bolts in there. Or maybe he is just being a Debbie downer again like that old lady said when he told her that the sand kept getting in his clothes. Watto fly's back to the counter and starts counting the credits in the till.

His small little fingers quickly start picking out the different sorts of bolts and putting them in their separate boxes. The big ones go with the big ones; the little ones go with the little ones. The short ones shouldn't be with the longs ones. It is such a mindless task that Anakin is very quickly bored out of his mind. But to his credit, he starts off strong and keeps sorting for nearly a whole hour before his mind starts to wander back to the present his mom has hidden from him. He frowns as he once again tries to figure out what it is. A model fighter maybe? More books about space? Soon he is completely bored with his task and can barely stand to look at the pile of bolts in front of him.

"I'm five today you know" he states with childish glee to Watto.

"Five? Already?" Watto lets out a few soft chuckles "You're getting big Ani; soon you can start helping your mother fix the droids"

Anakin darts around to square his master with an expression of unadulterated glee.

"Really? I can?!" Thoughts of finally being able to fiddle with the treasure trove inside the shop filling him with excitement.

"Well, only if you're good. So get back to work, I want those sorted by the end of the day"

Anakin sighs, knowing all too well that it's a bad idea to get on his masters wrong side. He sulkily returns his attention to his job and resolves himself to power through it. After what feels like an eternity of sorting, he eventfully allows himself to think about his present again. It would be really awesome if his mom bought him a book about droids. Then he could repair anything in the shop. Maybe one day he will even be the best mechanic on Tatooine.

Several gruelling hours jam packed with boredom of the worst kind eventually pass by and Watto allows Anakin and his mom to go into the backyard for lunch.

Schmi unwraps the homecooked buns she made the night before and hands one to her son.

"Thanks" He says happily as he hops over to metal the bench by the wall and sits himself down. He takes one giant bite out of the top of the bun as his mother comes to join him.

"Mom, why did you lie to Watto earlier?" he muffles loudly with a mouth full of bun. Crumbs trickle out of his mouth and stick to his tunic, but he is to busy staring up at his mother to notice.

She smiles down at him with caring brown eyes.

"I didn't want him to know that you held us up"

Anakin raises one of his eyebrows like the people in the comic books he reads always do when they're puzzled. He gathers the giant ball of food in his mouth and swallows it all with one giant gulp.

"But you said lying is wrong"

He says before stuffing another giant chunk of food into his mouth. This piece is so big that his cheeks hurt.

She wraps her arm around his shoulder and wipes the crumbs off his shirt.

"Sometimes we do things that we usually think are bad to protect those we love from harm"

"But it's still bad, right?"

Her hand moves to cup his face and she wipes a large chunk of bun off his cheek with her thumb.

"Yes, but I didn't hurt Watto because he doesn't know any better, and if told him the truth he would have gotten angry and we all would have suffered"

Anakin digests this information for a few moments as his mother continues to wipe crumbs from his lap. She didn't do it because it was bad and she's a bad person, she did it because she was protecting him, so she is a good person. Anakin concludes that sometimes you have to do bad things to protect good people.

"I understand" he says with a broad smile that reveals his missing front tooth.

"I knew you would, your my smart little boy Ani" she says with soft encouragement.

"I'm not little!" He shouts in protest.

"You certainly haven't gotten a little tummy judging by the way you ate that bun" she jokes as she tickles the sides of his tummy.

He can't help but burst to laughter, his sides are always his weak spot.

"Stop! Mom!" He cries through fits of laughter.

Her timer dings, telling them that their break is up. Thankfully freeing him from her tickle torture. She wipes her own crumbs of her lap and stands up in front of her son.

"Come on Ani" she says with a golden smile as she reaches out her hand.

He smiles back and gets up with her. Just a few more hours now before they can go home.

It's evening now and the heat of the day is starting to pass. Anakin is ready to climb up on the counter he is so excited. He happily jumps from foot to foot as his mother talks with Watto in the back room. If it's a model fighter, he is going to put it up on that big empty spot on his shelf. He can even move some of his old stuff out of the way depending on how big it is.

Schmi finally appears and walks over to him, she feels just as excited is him when she sees the look on his face.

"Ready to go?" She asks, though he suspects she already knows the answer.

"You bet!" He says, grabbing her hand impatiently.

"See you tomorrow" she calls to Watto as she gathers the few things she takes with her to work.

"Alright. Don't be late tomorrow eh?" He calls back from the other room.

"We won't" she says before opening the door to leave.

They head outside and Anakin struggles to not drag his mom across the street. They walk home quicker than usual as Anakin interrogates her once more about his present. But she remains frustratingly quiet. All she will do is reply with an understanding smile and a few gentle words of consolation.

They reach their hut as the last few drops of light give way to the encroaching darkness. Schmi opens the door and before she can set foot inside her son has bolted past her legs and into her room. She hurriedly closes the door and rushes after him. She follows him to see that he thankfully hasn't opened his present yet, she didn't want to miss this for the world.

Anakin kneels beside the big blanket his present is hidden under. It's at the foot of her cot, which takes up most of the space in the small room. He looks back at her with eyes betraying all the excitement he built up over the day.

"Well, go on" she says as her smile grows so big it almost rivals his.

Anakin pulls back the blanket with one powerful tug. Underneath is a big box about half the size of him, it's kept together with black tape.

He still can't tell what it is though, so he hurriedly pulls away at the tape to get a look inside. He opens it out to see that there are lots of old fashioned manuals on top, made from real paper. He carefully pulls them out, not wanting to so much as leave a small crumple on his new belongings. To his glee he reads that they are droid construction manuals! They look like they're for some sort of protocol droid.

"Cool!" He exclaims. He flicks through the pages. It gives detailed information on the specifics of a humanoid translation droid.

"It's fluent in over 6 million languages! That's so awesome!" Anakin says with a smile so big it was threatening to reach his ears.

"Unfortunately I couldn't get you a protocol droid Ani, but I'm sure if we look around in the junkyard we will find you some parts to get you started" she says, knowing how much her son wants to start working on droids himself.

"Yeah!" He says as he flicks though the pages again.

"There's more, look in the box again" she says she kneels down beside him.

Anakin can hardly believe his ears.

"More?" He says as he looks into the box again.

He sees the glint of something shiny catch his eyes beside the scrap metal his mother no doubt collected for him.

He reaches in and grabs the mysterious object. He pulls it out to see that's it a brand new hyper spanner; a multi-purpose tool designed to allow one to be able to fix and build robotics with ease.

"Wow! Mom, where did you find this?" He asked as he reverently stares at his new implement. Hyper spanners may not be new technology, but they are top of the range in the outer rim. To a slave they would cost a small fortune. He never thought he would get his hands on one of them.

"I have my ways" she says as her sons joy threatens to bring her tears.

"Thanks mom. You're the best!" He exclaims.

Anakin jumps up and runs over to his mom to give her a big hug. She lets him run into her chest before she wraps her arms around him. He squeezes her with all his might, conveying in any that he can how much her presents mean to him.

"Take care of these now" she says as she kisses his blonde hair affectionately. "And don't let Watto see your new tools"

"I'll always keep them safe, I promise" he says with as much sincerity as a five year old can muster. He knows that they are poorer than most people and mom always has to tell him just that whenever he saw what his free friends got on their birthdays. So his mother must have gone through a lot of trouble to get him what she did and he promises himself that he will repay her by looking after them as best as he can.

After a few precious moments embracing get each other, Schmi pulls back to look down on her son. He looks back at her with big blue eyes and gives her a wonderful smile that makes her heart melt. That smile, makes everything she goes through worth it.

"Now, how about we get some dinner and I'll tell you about the constellations before we settle in for the night?" She says, knowing that teaching him about space will distract him from having to go to bed. Anakin is so energetic all the time that sometimes it's nearly impossible to get him to sleep.

"Yeah!"

He watches his mother slowly move from a kneeling position to a standing one. He can feel that her knees and back hurt from cleaning all day. He doesn't know how he knows though, and he is kind of scared that people will think he is crazy if he tells them he can do this.

She walks out into the kitchen. He looks down at his presents one last time, feeling completely satisfied with his birthday. The wait was worth it. He picks up his hyper spanner and clips it unto his belt before following his mother out into the kitchen. He wonders what she will tell him about space tonight.

Dooku fixes his cape uneasily as his pilot lands his ship in the grungy space port on Tatooine's surface. Tatooine, possibly one of the worst planets in the Galaxy. Hot, poor, corrupt. Everything the Count hates. But his master had insisted that he come here. In his meditations Sidious had sensed that there was an extremely powerful force sensitive on this planet and that he would be their key to victory against the republic. Dooku had begrudgingly gone along with his master as he usually did. How his master had managed to sense an untrained and likely very young uncertainty who lived on the other side of the Galaxy was beyond him. Part of him didn't even believe Sidious. But he was here anyway. And here in the late hours of the day too, which would make finding him or her all the more difficult.

Dooku waves away his guard as he steps out into the dusty and frankly filthy landing pad. He tries his best to ignore the suspicious individuals eyeing him as he walks as quickly as he can to his destination, some junk shop. The address is nothing special, but his master had insured him that he would find what they were looking for there. He just hopes Sidious was right so he can go there, get the little brat and leave as soon as humanly possible.

The streets he quickly realizes are just as filthy as the landing pad. This place is wretchedly poor and he can almost feel himself losing money by just existing here. He reaches the junk shop quickly. True to its name, there is indeed junk everywhere. Though it looks closed, which causes the Count to grimace. Although he can sense an individual inside, not that he needed to. He clearly hears him knocking over something and letting out a string of curses in response.

Dooku sighs, mentally preparing himself for his conversation with this backwater peasant. Oh how he hates talking to the ignorant. And in his experience, the poor are all most definitely ignorant. He opens the door to the shop with the force and strides inside. A blue toydarian is there to greet him.

"We're closed. Come back tomorrow" he says in questionable standard and fly's away.

But the count is having none of it. It's bad enough having to come to this wretched planet without its inhabitants treating him so rudely. He raises his hand and grabs the weak little alien with the force.

"That may be true, but we aren't done talking yet" he says as he strides over to his captive. The toydarian struggles, but to no avail. He remains suspended in the air thanks to the counts unquestionable power.

"Wha- what do you want?" It asked rather aggressively.

Dooku smiles a cunning smile as he looks into his captives stunned eyes. It's not every day a Sith Lord suspends you with the force.

"Information, my friend"

"Huh?"

"I'm looking for a child, one who spends or has spent a lot of time in this shop. Do you know anyone who fits that description?"

There are a few brief moments of silence, which are eventfully broken by the toydarian, who laughs uncomfortably

"That's not a lot of information to go on eh?"

That response isn't what he is looking for and he has to refrain from killing the pathetic little alien. He needs him, for now.

"This individual would be... unusually talented" the count continued.

The toydarian is silent for a few moments as he considers the counts words.

"I don't know anyone particularly talented, but my slave Anakin spends a lot of time here. He's a kid, and he's pretty smart for his age"

The force reacts unexpectedly as the toydarian utters his slaves name. Dooku can feel the darkness signaling to him with a flurry of intense energy. It seems that this master was right; someone powerful may very well be here after all.

"Your Slave, you say?"

"Yeah, he isn't for sale" the toydarian says, rather uneasily.

"Oh I'm sure I could make it worth your while"

He pulls out a huge bag of credits and drops it unto the counter.

"Now, I am offering you considerably more than a typical child would be worth. I suggest you accept my generosity, lest there be... complications"

The aliens merit, it seems to understand what he is insinuating. Its beady eyes dart between the money and his face as it tries to find a way out of the deal.

"Ah, he's nothing special, I think you got the wro-" the aliens drabble is cut of as Dooku tightens his grip around its neck.

"I assure you, I have the right person. Show me where he is, and you may live" he says, growing increasingly more tired of this conversation.

"Ok! Ok! Ack!" The toydarian manages to splurt as he chokes.

Dooku smiles.

"Good"

He lets go of the toydarian altogether and the pathetic beast nearly falls to the ground as he does so. He gasps for a few moments, Dooku watches him silently. He eventually manages to pull himself together, his wings start working again and he steadies his flight.

"He is probably at home now; I'll go pick him up for you"

"And I will accompany you" Dooku says as they both exit the shop.

This could have gone a lot worse, Dooku reflects as they walk down another putrid back alley. He could have had to spend several days scouring this disgusting bantha ridden pit in search of this kid, but he did not. His master will be pleased with his progress, most pleased.


	2. Chapter 2

Anakin watches as his mother leaves his bedside and heads for the door. She flicks off his light switch. Now the only brightness in the room is coming from the open doorway, a long block of yellow light traces the doors shape along the ground. Schmi steps outside and in doing so casts a shadow over to his bed.

"Goodnight sweetie" She says in a quiet tone.

"Night mom, I love you" he says much louder than his mother. He is still wide awake, and to busy thinking about his new toys to fake tiredness for mothers sake.

She shakes her head at him but he doesn't miss the growing smile on her face.

"Now, try to get some sleep" she says as she closes the door, leaving the room in darkness.

He scoffs to himself, if he went to sleep that would mean that he would be one step closer to getting up and going to work again tomorrow. And that is the last thing he wants to happen. He quietly slips out of his cot, and can feel bits of sand rustling around in his pajamas. He suppresses a groan. Sand is the worst! It gets everywhere. How did it even get in his pajamas? He sighs and decides to instead focuses on the object of his desires; the hyper spanner on his desk.

Mom told him not to bring it to work, but since he spends almost all day working that should mean that he gets more time to play with it at night right? He sneaks over to his desk, conscious of the thin walls of their hut, and plucks the hyper spanner from its resting place. It's cold to the touch thanks to the shiny metal incasing its insides. Anakin wonders if he can tamper with it and make it even cooler that in already is.

Its surface is covered in buttons, and he decides to press one at random. The hyper spanner abruptly starts vibrating and making a sharp screeching noise. He nearly jumps out of his skin with surprise. He angrily whispers several curses a five year old really shouldn't know and hurriedly presses the button several times before it finally stops making noise.

He is dead still, and listens for any clue if his mother heard him or not. The seconds tick by and nothing happens, the only noise is the gentle sound of the wind kicking up sand outside. Eventually, Anakin decides that he is safe and moves back to his cot. Sometimes he does wonder about his mother's hearing. He climbs back onto it and sits on the edge, letting his short legs dangle absently as he examines the hyper spanner.

Then he hears several loud thuds that make him gasp. His hands grip tighter around his hyper spanner. The sound is coming from outside. Is it a monster? Mom always says monsters aren't real; she even went as far as to promise him a million credits if he ever found one. But Greedo told him that tuskin Raiders steal slave children from their homes and feed them to their pets, alive. He goes cold at the thought of it. He always has nightmares about that happening. They may not be monsters but they defiantly act like them, and he knows they are real. Tuskins are really scary. There are three more loud thuds, followed by muffled voices. He hears a door open followed by his mother's voice.

And at that he is flooded with relief; someone must be at the door. It's not a monster; it's just a normal person. Although, why would someone be calling in the middle of the night? It's not like they had much guests anyway. No one official ever visited slave quarters, so the only guests he had ever seen in their house had been fellow slaves who knew his mom.

He shrugs, decides that Schmi will probably handle it and returns his attention back to his hyper spanner. But mere seconds later he hears his mother let out a heart-breaking cry. His entire body tenses. He hears Watto shout now. There is the sound movement outside. The shadow of whoever is lurking on the other side seeps through the crack at the bottom of the door.

Watto never comes here, something must be really wrong. The door abruptly opens to reveal a tall human wearing a long cape. His mother rushes towards him.

"No! Please!" She cries desperately.

Watto is holding her by the shoulder, slowly dragging her back from the doorway. Anakin doesn't like the way the strange man looks. He is old and has a cruel smile on his face that almost makes Anakin think he is enjoying his mother's distress.

"Mom?" He asks, struggling to hide the fear in his voice.

"Yes, this is the one" the man says, his accent is pure core world; rich and dignified. That only scares Anakin more. What's someone like that doing here? In his house?

"Don't take him! You can't take him!" Schmi cries, she finally breaks free of Watto and charges towards Anakin. But she stops mid stride, like an invisible hand has just halted her. An expression of confusion crosses her face, but it's quickly replaced once more by dread.

"I assure you, Miss Skywalker that your son will be well cared for. You have no need to worry for him" the stranger says, not breaking eye contact with Anakin.

Sudden realization slaps him across the face. He was being sold. Watto sold him. This man is here to take him away.

"But I don't want to go" he says so quietly it was almost a whisper. He doesn't even think anyone heard, they are all too busy focusing on his distraught mother.

"Come now Anakin, let's not waste any time" the old man says, though he does not make any move to leave.

His mother let's out another high pitched cry. Her face is red and puffy and wet with tears. Watto looks somewhat unsure of himself behind her.

"Watto?" Anakin asks, silently begging him to let him stay. He feels his own eyes welling up with tears as his stomach wells up with dread. His mom is like his best friend, the most important person in his entire world, he can't leave her!

"Go on kid, don't keep 'em waiting" Watto says.

"I don't want to" Anakin says again, a little more loudly this time.

The strange man lets out a loud sigh, rolls his eyes like everything about this situation is an annoying inconvenience and crosses the room in two graceful strides. He grabs Anakin by the shoulder with strength that he didn't expect a man of his age to have. His grip is cold and digs into his skin. The man drags Anakin off his bed and leads him towards the door. Anakin's heart constricts in tight, painfully cold knots. He can't believe this is actually happening, yet it is.

"No p-please! He is just a boy, y-you can't. He-he isn't any use to you" Schmi pleads through choking sobs.

The man ignores her and drags Anakin past his mother, and now he can't stop the tide of tears from coming either. He starts to cry too as his mother reaches out to him, he desperately reaches back. Their fingers graze each other's for a mere second before the stranger tugs him away.

"Mom!" He cries.

Her brown eyes never leave his as he is taken to the door, she tries to follow him outside but Watto grabs her shoulder and holds her back.

"I l-love you Ani, don't forget that, I love you, I love yo-" she is cut off as the strange man abruptly shuts the door behind them.

Without so much as looking down at his new possession, the count marches down the street. Dragging a distraught Anakin with him. He is stumbles backwards, because he can't turn around to walk forward. He can't not look at his home. Getting further and further away with every step. His mother is in there. Everything he owns is in there. Another cry escapes his mouth. He will never see her again. Never be hugged by her again.

"Now, my name is count Dooku, however you will only ever refer to me as master, I will of course expect..." the count drones as they turn a tight corner onto the Main Street. But Anakin isn't paying attention, not really. He can't. His ears are ringing, his eyes are burning. His grip around his hyper spanner tightens again and his hands turn white from the pressure. He never let it go. Not once, not even while Dooku hauled him out of his bed.

He can never let it go, not now; it's all he has left.


	3. Chapter 3

The trip to Serenoo had been a long one. While in reality, the trip had only taken four standard hours, to Anakin it had felt much longer. Dooku had ignored him almost the entire flight, and his guard wouldn't let him leave the small room at the back of the ship in which he had been placed. It was completely empty, devoid of even a bed, forcing him to sit on the ground. But it wasn't the lack of activity that drew out the wait. It was the overwhelming feeling of loss Anakin felt. Schmi wasn't there. She would never be there, and that scared him, a lot. His mom was always there for him to run to when he needed her. She always knew what to say to make him feel better, no matter what the problem was. But she had nothing to say to him now. He felt so lost and alone that he felt like throwing up. And it wasn't only his mother that he yearned for. All of his friends were gone. He would likely never see anyone he was used to meeting ever again. He even missed Greedo, despite the fact that they fought about something stupid every time they met. Everything he understood had suddenly been ripped out of his life. The desert may not be the most pleasant place in the world. It is harsh, hot and relentless. But he could handle it. He had spent his whole life in it. And now, everything is foreign. Dooku is foreign. Serenoo is foreign. He hasn't even seen his new home planet and yet he knows that it will be nothing like Tattooine, or his old life.

And he has long since cried himself dry over that fact by the time they land. Dooku enters his temporary room and ushers him towards the ramp of the ship. Even from in here he can hear the rustle of leaves and the chirping of wildlife outside. A cold breeze blows in from outside, sending Goosebumps down Anakins arms.

"You will walk behind me and follow my lead, do nothing else unless Palpatine or myself permit it" Dooku says as they make their way down the ramp. Anakin is immediately taken aback by the large fortress sprawling out in front of them, Dookus palace. A long walkway lined with large obelisks leads towards the giant structure some distance away. It towers up into the air; one large green window looks down upon those approaching like an eye, judging if they are worthy to enter such an opulent place. Or perhaps it's eyeing potential advisories. For some reason, Anakin can't shake the feeling that the palace is watching him. He averts his eyes, and instead looks at the sights closer to the landing pad.

The walkway is bordered by several large gardens, which house a variety of stunning plants Anakin couldn't ever have imagined to exist. Long sprawling arms of ivy already creep up youthful trees. Well maintained bushes flaunt vibrant flowers of all colors. Delicate white flowers tentatively creep up above the grass and towards the sun. A whole manner of different species of plants sway together in the gentle wind, their rustling almost sounds like whispers. Compared to the desert, it's, well, stunning. There are stone paths leading off the main walkway and into the depths of the gardens. Promising exciting secrets those brave enough to venture forth. He can't help but stare in amazement.

"Master" Dooku says respectfully, snapping Anakin out of his daze.

He looks back towards Dooku to find him kneeling in front of a robed figure, who upon sighting immediately sends shivers down his spine. He is smiling, revealing a set of disgusting yellow teeth, which almost shine against his black clothing. His head is tilted downwards towards Dooku.

"Darth Tyrannous, I see that your escapade was successful" he notes, slowly. Considerably.

Anakin feels rather uncomfortable beside the two Sith. Should he be kneeling? It wasn't right that one of his masters was while he stood. But at the same time he didn't know if he should, so he stands there, trying his best to please as his panic levels rise steadily. That robed figure is so completely terrifying that Anakin can think straight. It's almost as if he can feel the danger inside the man. His presence is as black and rotten as dead fruit, who's putrid sent wafts through the air around him.

"Yes master, though as you can see, the boy will need extensive training" Dooku says as he glances back at Anakin, standing awkwardly behind him.

"Yes" the man Anakin presumes to be Palpatine says slowly, drawing out every letter as he gazes upon him.

Palpatines head tilts forward enough to allow Anakin to see a pair of sickly yellow eyes burrowing into his own. They stare at him with such vicious intensity that he almost turns to run. His blood turns cold. Anakin looks to the ground, to anywhere other than those eyes. But he can still feel them piercing through him. It is almost as though they are examining his thoughts, his very soul. Palpatine is still for a few moments, but slowly he begins to walk towards Anakin. With weak, frail steps he rounds Dooku to stop right in front of him.

His hands are eye level for the young boy, who can see the sharp bones inside jut outwards. Murky blue veins run along milky, dead skin.

"Hello, Anakin. My name is Palpatine, and this" he motions with an arm towards the palace "is your new home" the voice is warm and welcoming, unlike anything he had expected. He feels soft waves of reassurance gently emanate from Palpatine.

His hand reaches out to Anakins shoulder, and squeezes. Like mom always did.

"I'm sure you will find your new accommodations to be most welcoming" he pulls Anakin forward, and leads him down the walkway. Dooku rises to his full height and follows alongside his master.

Anakin looks up at his new masters. Palpatine is gazing down at him affectionately. But those yellow eyes, they cut right into His soul. They're bloodshot, and their rims bleed a red so bright it could rival fire. A fire that might engulf him if he stares for too long.

"Now, there is the matter of your name" Palpatine purrs into anakins ear. "Anakin Skywalker is the name of a slave, and what are slaves, my boy?"

"Um, servants?" Anakin asks hesitantly, not completely sure what his new master expects of him. But Palpatine only laughs and spares Dooku a knowing glance.

"Yes, servants. And what do servants do?" No answer is immediately comes to him. Except the answer that they serve their masters. But that answer seems too obvious to be correct. Palpatine, seemingly aware of his inner struggle, smiles down at him and squeezes his shoulder.

"Yes, they serve the strong" his eyes light up with blazing anticipation "you, my boy, are far too strong to bear the name of a mere slave"

"What do you mean?" Anakin asks with bemusement. His new master was turning out to be really confusing, and one to give unnecessarily long winded explanations.

Palpatine chuckles and his smile turns slick with deadly malice, cutting across wrinkles that twist and distort around his cheeks.

"Don't you think you need a new name? A strong name. With my guidance, a name that people will come to respect" he looks up a the approaching palace, and takes in the chilly evening air with one long, content breadth. His eyes close and he exhales.

"Yes, I can feel it now" his eyes open, and he looks down at Anakin. The fire in his eyes dance around his pupils wildly, bursting with energy. "Vader"

The cold wind rattles against his thick robes, but nothing can break those eyes from Anakin. His new name sends another shiver down his spine. The name of the person he was to become.

"Darth Vader"


	4. Chapter 4

Hello all! I hope you're enjoying the story so far! I can't believe I have gotten as many views as I have, and only four chapters in too! And though its probably not nearly enough to warrant it being addressed like this, I just can't help it because you all make me really excited! Especially when I read your reviews! So THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! And If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will try my best to do so without spoiling anything.

But before you all get typing I'll try to address some points here first. I see that some people want to see the badass Sith Lord Vader sooner, but I'm afraid Anakin is going to stay a scared little child for just a bit longer. I want you to see his progression from innocent boy to heartless sith lord in more detail, it will add weight to the story later on when things start to develop more. So hang tight, he will become the all-powerful badass we all love in good time! When he does he will be awesome! :D

Will Anakin see his mom anytime soon? Well, as much as he wants to I don't think Dooku is going to let him out of his sight anytime in the near future so the answer to that is… highly unlikely, unfortunately.

So, in short. Thanks for reading. Thanks for reviewing. You're going to see more of baby Vader. Less of Schmi, and A WHOLE LOT OF SHITHY ANGST. Enjoy! x

He wakes suddenly from a tormented sleep. A certain mindless discomfort are all the clues he has to what nightmare he had been experiencing. A small gasp escapes his mouth and his eyes flash open. Fear and pain ripple through his body. For a second, just a second, he is about to call for mom. But the cold dark room he finds himself in reminds him that he is far from home.

He lies there for a minute, with breathing harsher than usual, and looks at the towering ceiling. It climbs higher and higher until the walls disappear into a black mist above. One deep breath. It was just a dream. Another deep breath. Dreams aren't real. He focuses on the present, turning his head to look at the small space he now sleeps in. His room is almost completely empty, spare the Dura steel desk in the far corner of the room. And devoid of any devices bar a chronometer, whose shrill beeps break the heavy silence that seems to fill the air.

It's time to get up and get dressed. Dooku doesn't like it when he's late. But every cell in his body screams for just five more minutes. To just.. close his eyes, only for a moment. Only a Little longer. No. He shakes his head, as if to shake rid himself of those thoughts. Last time he was late Dooku made him do so many push-ups he couldn't even lift his arms over his head afterwords. And that was only yesterday. Who knows what Dooku would do if he was late twice in a row.

With a face scrunched in determination, he swings his legs around to the floor. Which is freezing to the touch. Everything about his room is cold. From the rims of the bed to the icy sting of the air. It's as cold as space. With a reluctant sigh, he gets up and walks over to the wall adjacent to his bed, then presses the light switch. Dim white lights flicker to life along the walls, instantly brightening a room void of anything worth illuminating. He flicks anther switch, and the grinding of hidden gears pushes out one of many concealed drawers within the wall.

He puts on a dark shirt and matching trousers. The worst part about his uniform is the sheer amount of layers that it requires. First is the shirt, then several different overlapping tunics which must be individually secured at the waist with hidden straps. Along with pair of boots which must be strapped to his trousers. Followed by a light set of flexible armor to cover his shoulders and chest. Not that he particularly minds the complicated and rather grueling procedure that he now does whenever he dresses himself, it's just that it takes time that he would rather spend sleeping. Rest is a much sought after luxury here.

Annoyingly, the straps of the first layer don't quite make it around his waist on the first try. Blinking tiredly, he grabs the straps firmer and forces them in place. This outfit is getting a bit small for him, and that thought alights a brief flurry of dejection. It goes as quickly as it comes, and as he simmers in the emptiness that emotion brought, he remembers. Today is his tenth birthday. Not that he would have remembered if the straps hadn't reminded him. A mellow feeling of disappointment washes over him, if only briefly. Neither Dooku nor Palpatine celebrate birthdays. In fact, he was sure neither of them had even bothered to ask him when his birthday actually was. And so, for his past five birthdays, Anakin found himself coming to the bleary observation that that day marked his separation from his mother at a random point during the day. The first one had been the worst; just before he settled into a session of evening study, it had hit him. He cried when he remembered. Thankfully neither of his masters were around to see. Now however, he just finds himself feeling distantly melancholy. Anakin wonders if mom still remembers. He walks over to his desk and opens its drawer, Looking inside and spotting its only occupant instantly; the pristine surface of the hyper spanner reflects his face back unto him, and suddenly he finds himself looking into his own eyes. It had been five years today since he last saw her. Five long years without her embrace. Did she still miss him? Or had she moved on? A prickle of fear bites into the back of his neck. She wouldn't forget him, would she? Breathing out an uneasy breadth, he glances at his chronometer. Its 7:55, and he has to make his way through the palace to the dining room for breakfast before 8:00. He didn't have time to worry about this right now. Mentally he mentally pulls himself together and steels himself for another day. Palpatine says worry is a weak emotion anyway.

He closes the drawer, leaves his room, and heads down one of the many huge corridors within the palace. Tall black columns rooted to a polished floor hold up a large, slowly curving ceiling. Streams of green-tinted light stream through a line of green-tinted Windows. The corridor leads to a set of spiral stairs, which leads to another corridor, at the end of which is one of two dining rooms in the residential sector of the palace. There is also another dining room closer to the main hall, which would be used on formal occasions or when dining with guests. Though Anakin rarely sees the inside of that room, and can't even really remember where exactly it is. Dooku always uses it when Palpatine visits, but Anakin is never allowed inside.

He trots down the large set of stairs and hurries along a corridor so large an entire street of slave families could have lived in it. To be late by even a second would merit punishment in the counts eyes, so he makes up for all the time he can now by running up to the large pair of ornately carved wooden doors, almost five times his height, that mark the entrance to the dining room. He swallows hard, crossing his fingers and hoping that taking the time to look at his last present hadn't cost him to much time, and pushes the door open.

There is a large, twenty person table inside. Made from a deep dark wood polished to the point that you could see your own reflection in it. Dooku sits on the opposite end to the entrance, at the front of the table. A cup sits quaintly beside him, yawning out long streams of steam. A plate of colorful fruit lies below him, another to the counts left, where Anakin will sit. A serving droid waits by the single large, clear window at the back of the room, which allows for a view of the endless forests surrounding the palace.

"Good morning, master" Anakin says.

Without even acknowledging his existence, Dooku wordlessly glances at the time. Anakin waits for some sort of response, but Dooku gives none, neither condemning him nor praising him. It's almost as if he is drawing out the wait to just toy with him. Anakin bites back his growing uneasiness, clenching his fists together behind his back as he does so.

After several very long, tense seconds, Dooku finally turns and nods curtly at Anakin. "Apprentice"

He sighs inwardly with relief, Dookus rather plain response meant that he is probably just on time. He cautiously makes his way to his seat. The large, hand-crafted and cushioned chair he sits on is drastically different for any chair he would have sat on Tatooine.

Picking up a fork, he begins to tuck into his breakfast. Dooku, as usual, is ignoring him, favoring the data-pad to his side. Which could hold a whole manor of treasures inside. The count idly flicks through whatever he is looking at before taking a neat bite out of his breakfast. The curiosity quickly begins to eat away at all of Anakin's resolve, eventually forcing him to try his best to inconspicuously peer at whatever the count is looking at.

He really shouldn't, but nobody ever tells him anything and that data-pad probably holds an entire plethora of useful knowledge inside. Information is also a much sought after luxury here. While Anakin can rattle off all the senators currently in office on Coruscant, he wouldn't be able to tell anyone the first thing about count Dooku or Palpatine. They're enigmas to him. Them and their plans. On the rare occasions that Palpatine does come to visit, he always tells Anakin that he must train harder, because he is the key to the 'great ascension of the Sith'. But they won't tell him anything more other than the fact that he is important.

Just as Anakin leans forward enough to allow his eyes to graze over the information on the data pad, Dooku looks up at him. Anakin jolts back and fixes his eyes on his breakfast. He holds his breadth, but can feel warmth in his face, signifying that he was likely blushing. A cold fear simmers in his gut. Out of all the luxuries denied to him, mercy is the one he wishes for the most. But that is a gift rarely bestowed by the Sith. Dooku, again, remains frustratingly silent, he feels the force signature of the Count brush against his mind, making him flinch.

"Tell me Anakin, what is the role of the apprentice" Dooku asks with an odd calm that instantly puts him on edge. Dooku only ever uses that tone on certain occasions. Very specific occasions Anakin would very much like to forget.

Anakin instantly recalls the definition of a Sith apprentices role. "To obey his master's command, and to learn from him" He answers quickly. Dooku asks this question a lot.

Another long silence from the count. By now, Anakin is almost sure that he is drawing out the wait just to inflate his anxiety.

"And when did you learn to pry into your masters personal records without any prior command to do so? " Dooku says, using the same casual tone.

Anakin bites his lip, and can feel a cold sweat surging through his veins. He never knows what to say in situations like these, because even though Dooku sounds at ease, Anakin knows that underneath his mask there is a monster waiting to pounce at the slightest mistake.

"I wasn't prying master" He says, hoping that maybe he can convince the count that he is innocent, despite that fact that he isn't.

"I asked you a question" The counts says, his tone ever so slightly more threatening.

"I-I never learned to pry into your- I mean my masters records, master"

"Apparently you were learning to lie instead" Dooku says sharply. He suddenly stands, causing a bolt of fear to strike Anakin like lightning.

"What is your role?" He asks again, all the while glaring down at the young boy with fiery yellow eyes that were brown a moment before.

"To obey, and to le-"

"To Obey" Dooku cuts in before Anakin can finish.

"Since you're not Obeying, I can see that you obviously aren't a worthy sith apprentice" That word. It always causes a fiery anxiety slam straight into Anakin's chest every single time its uttered. Worthy. Palpatine chose him. Palpatine says he is the key. Palpatine says he has to be his best, all the time. Yet all the time Dooku calls him unworthy.

Anakin's face instantly darkens, and Dooku knew it. He felt the surging emotions crashing within the boy. Of course, the word worthy is always the safe, reliable card to play. Dooku knows Anakin has to feel worthy, because if he isn't worthy to be here, then he would have been ripped away from everything he cared about for nothing. And that feeling of being denied everything for nothing brings the boy to his knees quicker than any punishment Dooku has ever carried out on him.

"Who are you?" Dooku asked, his tone less threatening.

"Darth Vader" Anakin replied instantly.

"Are you?"

"Yes, master"

"Does Darth Vader disobey those teaching him?"

"No, master"

"Would Darth Vader carry out any task commanded of him by his superiors?"

"Yes, master"

Dooku scoffed, crossed his arms, and leaned into Anakin's personal space.

"Then you are not Darth Vader"

"I-I Am master" Anakin insists, suddenly growing a lot more anxious.

A smile slid across Dookus face. "Then prove it"

Obi-Wan gazes out large, oval-shaped window of the meditation chamber, soaking up the brilliant cityscape before him. Its towering buildings casting long, tired shadows indicating a slow creep into the darkness of the coming night. Obi-wan sighs; he should be meditating, that's what he always comes here to do, yet he often finds himself doing the opposite; brooding. His master is dead. Dead and gone at the hands of a Sith. A sith, who he only just managed to kill. A sith, who had awoken within him an inner turmoil he was not yet ready for. His master is dead. Even though a year has already passed, the pain he feels over Qui-Gon's death is not yet gone. A Jedi should rejoice when one dies, for they are being released into the force. A Jedi should be at peace knowing that all who leave are joined into the force itself, to live forever as part of its collective energy. A Jedi should take consolation in that the force will always be there to guide them, no matter the circumstances. Yet Obi-Wan felt little joy, even less serenity, and no peace.

Traffic lanes crowded with hundreds upon hundreds of speeders zip by. Every speeder representing at least one person, who, in all likelihood is blissfully unaware of all the horrors the universe holds. If only he could be like them; existing without waking up every morning to remember that the Sith now pose a very real threat to the galaxy. A war was coming. His master's death signaled the beginning of the Siths awakening, everyone can feel it. The council is being more cautious than ever. The knights are jumpy. The padawans restless. He even more so. To have been the first person to kill a Sith in over a thousand years, it's no surprise that he is feeling a little shaken up. He closes his eyes and he see's Mauls yellow eyes, bright with a ravenous hunger to kill. He sees the red blade pierce his masters stomach, watches him fall helplessly to the ground. Those yellow eyes, nothing can represent something so cruel, so violent, so unrelenting, so inhumane as those yellow eyes.

As the chronometer ticks steadily past the nineteenth hour, the sky gives way to an explosion of yellows and purples. The day's final burst of color before the inevitable night. Obi-Wan takes in the beauty of the sky before him, observing silently as lights flicker in the windows of the towering skyscrapers. He furrows his brow in resilience; he had felt the very real pain of grief and had wallowed in it for almost a year. But is a knight now. He is truly a member of the Jedi order, and as such, it's his duty to uphold all of their virtues. The darkness may be coming, but he will be ready. His master will not have died in vain. Taking a deep breath, he closes his eyes and with some difficulty, releases his emotions to the force. Then, he turns from the window and sits, cross-legged, upon the meditation mat in the center of the room. There is no passion, there is peace.

A storm is coming, but the rain it brings always allows for life to grow. Obi-Wan has been through the storm. He has felt the very real pain of grief and has wallowed in it for almost a year. Has endured the cascading torrents of Mauls fevered assault. He takes in another deep breath, and allows the force to flow freely through him. Now, he will blossom to life, he will grow tall and dependable. He will be ready to weather whatever was to come. He is a Jedi knight, and no storm will break him. No loss will cripple him. No war will thwart him. No Sith will ruin him. The force washes away his grief as he surrenders to the light side. Qui-Gon is gone, but his teachings will live on through him. There is no death, there is the force.

It's dark. Anakin inches forward, trying in vain to gain some sort of awareness from his surroundings. Dooku had thrown him into the large training room underneath the castle, and had flicked off the lights without giving Anakin so much as a hint as to what would come next. He can feel small prickles of fear tickling the back of his neck, causing an outburst of Goosebumps to run along his skin. He has to prove himself once more; prove that he is worthy to be Sith. Yet Anakin doesn't truly know what that word means.

"Obedience is the singular trait every apprentice holds" Dooku's voice echoes throughout the room. "No matter his own motives or desires, the apprentice always obeys"

Anakin takes a tentative step forward, with fists clenched nervously. He is unsure. He wants to prove himself, he wants to be obedient. Yet to obey one must first be able to complete the order given to them. There is a groaning of movement around him. But Anakin can't pinpoint it in the darkness. He shifts his weight in preparation to some sort of conflict, reaching for the newly constructed lightsaber resting peacefully on his belt.

"Now, apprentice, you will kill your advisories"

The groaning gets louder, he hears hatches opening, then a ragged breath. The force warns of foreign life nearby, echoes of fear and confusion similar to his own simmer in the distance.

Suddenly a brilliantly blue lightsaber bursts to life a few feat away from him, illuminating the face of a teen a few years older than him. His dirty brown hair is tossed and messy, and the makings of a beard frame his youthful face. A long braid of hair hangs towards his shoulder, the tell-tale symbol of a Jedi padawan.

"Kota?" The padawan asks warily.

"Anim?" A distinctly feminine voice calls back. It's a young voice, one belonging to someone a few years behind him. Anakin grips the hilt of his lightsaber in shaking hands full of high-strung fear and adrenaline. Kill your advisories.

"Kota, where are you?" He asks again.

Anakin creeps towards the boy. He cannot fail, he cannot endure any more of Dooku's sick punishments.

"I-I'm coming towards you" The young girl reply's

He draws closer, but not close enough to allow any light to fall unto him.

"Don't be afraid Kota, we'll get out of here" the padawan says, turning his face away from Anakin as he attempts to get an idea of his surroundings.

Anakin takes the opportunity to strike; igniting his blood-red blade and a millisecond later slashing down towards the padawans shoulder. But his advisory senses him, darting his head around and drawing his lightsaber up to block Anakin's' just before the blade makes contact with flesh. An instant later and the boys are dueling viciously in the darkness. Anakin concentrates on the singular glowing blue blade whirling around in front of him, the padawan is taller than Anakin, and stronger too. Before he knows it he is on the defensive, and being forced backwards into the unknown behind.

"Anim!" The girl shouts from the darkness. The padawan pays her no heed, his eyes are locked on Anakin's. Anakin puts his gaze past their lightsabers and to what they are illuminating. As the blades twirl he catches sight of the padawans body, his pose is wrong, the right leg to far forward. A weakness to exploit. Anakin blocks another heavy strike from the padawan before quickly swiping at his legs, the padawan jumps into the air and kicks Anakin in the head as he does so. Sending him flying backwards. Sharp pain erupts from his chin as he falls to the cold ground. A blue blade swings towards his face. He rolls, just dodging the hit. Anakin stands and just manages to regain his balance before the padawan is on him again.

"Use your anger" The count commands distantly.

"Blasted sith!" The padawan shouts and swings for Anakin's' neck. He dodges again, his breath becoming more audible under the strain of the fight.

Their blades clash a second later as the relentless padawan pushes his assault. Anakin trys to conjure up a rage to match his advisories but only finds fear within him. Another powerful belt against Anakin's blade sends shivers down his arms. The padawan clashes again, so hard that Anakin has to use the force to match the strength in the strike. As Anakin focuses all of his force energy on deflecting the attack, the padawan takes advantage and releases a wave of energy that sweeps him off his feet as he fly's backwards. His back rams into the hard wall. His vision is starry and for a few moments he can't orientate himself.

The padawan uses the force to charge towards him, roaring, his lightsaber raised for the kill. But just as the blue blade is about to strike him down as pair of small hands latch onto the padawans and freeze them in place.

"No! Not in anger!" The young girl cries.

Suddenly, the lights flicker on, and Anakin's' gaze falls upon his savior; a young twi'lek girl with muted green skin. She wears the clothing of a Jedi youngling, though her small tunic in tattered and frayed, with burn marks on the edges. Her pudgy, young face is filled with dread and torment. She can't be more than six. The padawan's gaze leaves Anakin and turns to the girl, and that fire in his eyes dim significantly. He looks as if he was been caught in the act of some heinous crime, the padawan suddenly drops his lightsaber and takes several terrified steps away from Anakin.

"Be tactical apprentice" Dooku hisses.

Anakin, for a moment, doesn't know what to do. After a few seconds he gets up and takes the padawans lightsaber off the ground. The girl watches him warily, her steady, green eyes denoting a wisdom surpassing her age. He is blown away; this girl saved his life. He should be on his knees thanking her. Not contemplating her death.

"They must die"

In an instant, fear strikes him again. Stabbing in the center of his heart like a dagger. But this time, he isn't afraid for himself.

The girl's eyes don't leave his for a second, yet her gaze isn't angry, or threatening, or even fearful. Its controlled, its understanding.

"You don't have to do this, you know" She says evenly.

The dagger twists in his chest. How can he kill her after she saved his life?

The padawan, disarmed and defeated, is now shaking visibly.

"P-please, kill me not her. I'm the one you want" He pleads.

"I can feel the light within you" The girl continues. "You're lying to yourself"

"Finish them, apprentice" Dooku barks suddenly, making everyone jump. "Or you will face the consequences of your indecision"

Memories of Dooku ripping through his mind with the force send shock-waves of dread through his system. He hesitates, something inside of him stilling his hand, rooting his feet in place.

"Who are you?" Dooku prompts, his voice rising. Anakin doesn't answer intimately. "Who are you?" Dooku asks again, more forcefully this time.

"Darth Vader" Anakin whispers.

"Who?"

"D-Darth Vader"

"Does Darth Vader show mercy to the weak?"

"N-no"

"Does the Sith apprentice obey his master?" Dooku said, his voice raising to the point to where he was nearly shouting.

Anakin is silent, adrenaline courses through his body. His hands clench tighter around the hilt of the blade. HIs muscles are constricting so tightly that the slightest pressure will set them into deadly action.

"Does he?!"

He shuts his eyes, every cell in his body trembles with unreleased power, with fear, with revulsion, with so many emotions he can hardly contain himself.

"Who are you?!"

The blade activates, and in the blink of an eye Anakin slices through the young girl beside him, crying out as he does so. The padawan cry's with him.

His knees are weak, his hair sticks to his forehead. He opens his eyes, hatred and revulsion for the horrific act he just committed fueling a hidden power within him. Fueling the dark side. His first murder. The padwan takes a fearful step back. Anakin feels wet tears spread down his cheek, but he moves forward anyway. He runs into the padawan, stabbing him in the gut with another pained cry.

He Looks up to see blood pour out of the padawans mouth. His eyes glaze over and he falls away as Anakin removes the blade. He feels cold, so cold. His clothes stick to him, his breaths come erratically. There is a short silence.

"Who are you?" The count asks once more, calmer this time.

Anakin takes a deep breath, only to exhale a shaky one. It's done. He killed them. The dark side latches further unto his emotions, pulling away his fear and guilt and replacing it with power. Sheer, uncontrolled, power. Power that is so blinding it almost burns him. Every fiber of his being is alive, more alive than they have ever been. Waves of anger pulse through him. He is a monster, he killed them. Yet the thought only makes the roaring assault of the dark side stronger. The strength steadies his shaking hands. Dries up his watery eyes. Who was he? Would Anakin do this? Would a slave rise up to kill another like he had? No. Would a Sith?

Anakin's face tightens. His muscles tense in anticipation. He holds his head up high, and looks towards Dooku, who stands upon the observation balcony above him.

"I am Darth Vader"


	5. Chapter 5

A cool autumn breeze whistles through the maze of snaking branches high above the enclosed garden, stealing away fiery orange and red leaves to plant them on the pale stone courtyard underneath. A sleepy morning fog keeps the land tucked away like a long white blanket, assuring most of the planets creatures that morning is yet to come, even though the hidden sun slowly creeps higher into the air. Frosted webs glisten in the pale light and small, delicate teardrops drip from leaves still managing to cling to the trees. The crisp air has dismissed the insects until spring, yet a few brave ones still fly about in search of the flowers that bloom this late into the year. The early birds sing away happily within the exotic shrubbery all around, blissfully ignoring the boy underneath them. A couple glance down at him as he hisses in annoyance, but they ignore him once more as he picks up his wooden pole and starts the ritual again.

A step to the right. Two steps back. The invisible opponent strikes with a powerful vertical cleave. This is countered by horizontal block, with both hands firmly holding the hilt, followed immediately by three steps forward and a quick angled slash towards the opponents shoulder. He rises with the blade, and as it swooshes through the air he jumps and flips backwards, saving himself from the counter attack aimed at his legs.

He lands on the ground with a loud thud, and the vibrations of his movements ripple through his body, causing the droplets of sweat that had gathered in his shaggy hair to fall lose and land on his nose. But he doesn't take any notice. Instead, immediately after landing he quickly drops to his knees and rolls forward, passing under the invisible opponents guard to rise behind him.

He turns, the strength and speed in which he does so causes cold air to bite against his face in resistance. But again, he pays it little attention. A quick forward thrust into the opponents back delivers the final blow, and finishes the kata. This one focuses on speed and precision, it aims to teach the practitioner how to use agility to overpower a more grounded opponent.

Vader keeps this in mind as he takes a small, almost unnoticeable breath to reign in any way word emotions before starting the kata again. His muscles are fatigued. He has been practicing for hours, but that doesn't stop him. He will continue to do it over and over again until he is called away. It must be perfect. Everything from the positioning of his feet to the way he holds his saber must be clean-cut perfection. He will accept no less.

Again, he performs the kata, doing it quicker. Fighting against his previous times in a ruthless and never ending cycle of self- improvement. But that small breath doesn't hold back the wave of frustration that ripples through him as he once again only barely manages to match his best time.

A growl of frustration escapes his lips. Thirteen years old and he can't even complete an entry level kata at a reasonable time. Perfection is key; perfection dilutes weakness. Weakness is the cause of failure. Failure is unacceptable. Therefore, a Sith must never be weak. Only perfect. And completing the kata in over one minute and thirty six seconds is far from perfect.

He shakes his head angrily before starting again. Sidious had said that he is the most powerful force user to have ever existed. He has the most potential of any being in the entire history of the Galaxy. And he _will_ be perfect.

He finishes to find he didn't even reach his best time; losing by three seconds. He is getting worse! He breaths out another hiss, straining against the loathing burning against his muscles. But it's no use; the force lathes unto his anger, so much so that the pole he holds starts to splinter and snap under the pressure of his grip. Stupid pole! It's just as weak as he is! Vader roars in anger and throws it away with all of his might, sending the pole crashing into a nearby tree. A group of startled birds flee into the air, screeching in surprise as they do so. He looks at the disorganized group of yelping birds retreat in disgust. Everything in this kriffing garden is pathetic.

"Your anger is wasted on you, boy"

Vader turns towards the entrance to see Dooku watching with a steady glare. He had been so caught up in training that he hadn't even noticed his master's presence. Dooku looks as calm and collected as always, yet there is a bite to his voice that hints at some hidden annoyance. Normally, upon seeing his master, Vader would greet him respectfully the instant he approached. But today, he is so angry he can't even open him mouth.

The two lock eyes for a few moments, each willing the other to speak out in defiance. But both remain stubbornly silent. Eventually, Dooku walks over to his young apprentice. His long brown robes rustling gently in the wind as he does so.

"A Sith doesn't throw a temper tantrum like a child every time something upsets him" Dooku says with obvious distaste, causing a surge of even more anger to make Vader's blood boil. He is _not_ a child. A child would never, could never do the things he does.

His anger must have shown in his face, because Dooku starts to smile at him. It's not a friendly smile, or even an understanding one. It's a menacing smile. He is smiling with the same sort of gleeful menace as one would when looking at something they hate suffer. Vader's only response is to scowl harder at him.

Dooku waits a few moments for his apprentice to respond, and when he sees that he won't, he turns to pick up the broken pole lying by the tree, turning it over in his hand and running his fingers along its bent and splintered surface.

"Are you going to crack your lightsaber and throw it away when your enemy is about to best you in a battle?" Dooku asks, almost mockingly.

"No one will best me in battle. I'll do what I want" Vader barks back.

Suddenly, the count turns sharply and before Vader can react he is assaulted with a torrent of lightning. The likes of which send him flying towards the ground. An unstoppable scream escapes his mouth as blue sparks cloud his vision. His head bangs against the hard pavement, causing an explosion of stars in his eyes. The Lightning courses through him, ripping through every part of his body. He convulses helplessly on the ground, and soon it's so painful he can't even scream.

"You forget your place, apprentice" Dooku hisses. The Lightning stops, but Vader remains flinching uncontrollably on the ground. His nerves refuse to respond to any commands he gives, instead they jolt violently and his muscles size into place like stone.

Vader can see the counts shadow standing over him, but can't move his head up enough to see anything above his boots. Dooku drops the broken pole in front of him and walks back to the entrance.

"Come to the throne room when you're presentable" he spits before leaving his apprentice to convulse for several more long minutes on the ground.

Slowly, the pain starts to cease, and his body begins to respond to him again. The convulsions die away, leaving him lying on the cold ground limply. He sighs, and expects another wave of fury to assault him as he gets up, but it's seems that his anger left with Dooku, now all Vader feels is emptiness.

The man always seems to either leave him simmering in rage or feeling completely and utterly void of any emotions. Perhaps when he was younger he would have felt fear in the place of emptiness, or perhaps even loneliness or doubt, or the sort of indescribable emotion that caused him to run to someone he knew who cared about him. But he is thirteen now. He can't afford to think and feel like a child any longer.

He picks up his bent pole and marches out of the courtyard, finding himself in a sheltered path that leads to the exit. A host of fiery leaves scrunch under his demanding boots. A Sith is never afraid, and even when he is he never shows it. Fear is weakness, and we all know where that leads.

The path ends abruptly as it meets with the central walkway towards the palace. Vader continues his tireless march through here too. Though, for a second, he steals a glance at the host of flight craft scattered lazily about the landing zone. A quick flash of something warm fizzles in his mind, filling the gap in his emotions for just a moment. Flying. Hopefully he will be allowed to start piloting soon. Though knowing Dooku, he will find a way to make the entire experience infuriating.

Talking about infuriating experiences, why would Dooku call him to the throne room? That's where the Count meets with his 'guests'. Force knows what they talk about. Vader has only been in there a few times, and even then it was never more than a brief few moments of passing as Dooku states that 'it's no place for a child'. Does that mean that perhaps he is more than 'just a child' now? Or is his master just toying with him?

Vader reaches the entrance to the palace, not stopping or relenting in his pace for even a second. He continues his march down the long hallway inside. This is either going to be an extremely informative or an extremely unpleasant meeting. He reaches the rather empty entrance hall, but heads past it and towards the elevator that will take him up to the throne room. Why the count owns a palace this big is beyond Vader. The two of them are the buildings only permanent residents, and almost three quarters of the entire place is never used. And that's being very generous on what exactly counts as 'using' a room.

The elevator takes its sweet time in delivering Vader to his destination. Patience has never been his strong point, especially when he is waiting on a mystery. But eventually the doors slide open to reveal the throne room. It's rather dark, with the only light coming from a large, multi-paneled window at the back that towers oppressively into the air. It offers no sight of the surrounding landscape; instead, the windows are purely green, not even the shadow of the outside world can be seen through it. Just underneath the window, upon a platform raised above the rest of the room, sits not a throne, as one would expect in a throne room, but a large, arrow shaped desk. With tall backed chair serving as the rooms only other piece of furniture.

The count is there, waiting for him at the top of the raised platform. He ignores the chair so obviously placed there for his use, and instead chooses to stand by his desk, elegantly wrapping one hand behind his back as Vader has often seen him do while dueling. His heavy Sith robes are gone, and now Dooku had donned a cape to match his overly expensive tunic. The counts blazing eyes glitter just like the golden buttons adorning his clothing, they follow Vader as he strides forward, stopping just at the steps and bowing.

"Master" he says respectfully.

"Rise, apprentice" Dooku says distantly.

Vader obliges, giving the count a questioning eye as he does so.

Dooku, as usual, ignores him and instead slowly makes his way over to the window. He clasps his hands in front of him and stares into the shiny green glass, not that he can see anything through it of course. Perhaps he does so in contemplation. Every bone in Vaders body wants to ask the count what he is planning, and why he is here but he knows better. Showing anything but respect ends in pain, a lesson he had to relearn back in the garden.

"Darth Sidious is building an army. A droid army." Dooku announces slowly.

Vaders eyes widen ever so slightly. And he subconsciously stands a little straighter. Is he finally going to get word of what his masters are planning?

"One that will be used in the coming war against the republic"

They were going to go to war with the republic? But…

"I thought master Sidious was the chancellor of the republic." Vader states, confusion apparent in his voice. Why would one become chancellor of the very thing he seeks to destroy?

The count turns to face his apprentice, annoyance and frustration clearly written on his ageing face.

"You're as fatuitous as you are arrogant." Dooku spits. Though the brief burst of anger from his master is quickly replaced with mere distaste. "Sidious's plans will become clear to you in time, apprentice" He says, barking out the word 'apprentice' as though it were venom on his tongue. "Once everything is in place, even one as foolish as you will be able to comprehend the magnitude of his designs upon the galaxy"

His forehead crinkles as a strong wave of emotions pulse through him. Anger, embarrassment, humiliation. Vader clenches his fists in an attempt to reign in his increasingly unstable demeanor. Some days, he almost feels like he can act normal, or at the very least in control. But those days seem to becoming increasingly few and far between. So much so that they stand out enough for him to recognize the change in his emotions. And so he secretly christened those days 'Anakin' days. Not knowing whether or not they were a blessing or a sign of weakness, but sure that they reminded him of how he felt before coming here. Today isn't an Anakin day. No, it is most certainly a Vader day.

"Nonetheless, you will be accompanying me to Geonosis. I will be inspecting the first models of the droids to be built there. You will be observing silently and refraining from drawing any unnecessary attention to yourself. We are leaving in ten minutes"

Another surprising revelation. He hasn't left Serenoo since he was first taken here. Though why he has suddenly been granted the ability to leave now is beyond him. But, despite the small mountain of confusion steadily growing in the young boys mind, Vader stifles his questions for fear of stepping out of line and instead bows respectfully to Dooku.

"Yes master" he says solemnly, yet his mind is racing with barely contained anticipation. He looks up. Dooku gives him a nod of dismissal before turning back to the glass window. It's time to leave. He turns around and silently walks back towards the elevator. Geonosis. Just the planets name sends his mind racing with possibilities. What type of planet is it? Who lives there? It must be interesting if a man as rich and important as count Dooku is going there. If they're designing droids there, maybe it's a completely urban planet, like Coruscant. Imagine that! It has to be really high tech, how else would they build an army out of droids? Maybe it will be like Wattos shop back on Tatooine, except newer, and cleaner with cooler technology and more interesting droids.

Suddenly forgetting about his frustrations with the Count, Vaders mind quickly begins to run away with a certain quiet excitement. Finally he was being taken away from this blasted palace. To somewhere completely new. Perhaps he may even be able to finally prove himself to Dooku. Perhaps he will even get to inspect some of the droids himself. Perhaps this is an Anakin day after all...

* * *

Geonosis, it seems, isn't all Vader had hoped it to be. He stares lazily out the passenger viewport as their ship zips through a nearly endless plain of red, barren stone. He has yet to see even a single life form. Not even a shrub or bush. It makes him wonder if the surface even has breathable air. There are no factories, no buildings, no robots, not even a kriffing village or landmark or anything. Just red rocks and sand. Everywhere.

He sighs loudly. Why, in all the places in the entire galaxy that they could have gone, did they come here? Master Sidious is the chancellor of the entire republic, he practically has the Galaxy at his fingertips yet here is where he wants his droid army built? Force, the planets crappy climate will probably rust all of his new droids to nothing before they can even step off the assembly line.

The auto-door opposite him slides open and Dooku steps out. He had been communicating with… someone in there for about five minutes. Vader summarized that it was probably whoever they would be meeting at the factory, though he can never be sure with his masters. He walks towards the entrance to the ship and puts on his cloak.

"We will be arriving shortly, stay by my side and don't say a word" Dooku reiterates once again. It's almost like he is nervous about something, though Vader quickly dismisses the thought. His masters are never nervous about anything.

He gets up in silent compliance and puts his cloak, throwing the hood over his head to hide his face. The engines squeal as the ship slows to a halt and begins the landing sequence. A soft 'thump' signals their arrival, and a few moments later the entrance hisses open. A blast of dry, sandy air immediately hits his cheeks despite the fact that a hood is covering most of his face. He sighs to himself. This is going to be a long trip.

The ramp slides out to the ground and Dooku quickly follows it. Vader respectfully stays a few steps behind his master, but stays close to his side nonetheless. Their landing pad is situated at the base of a tall, yellowish spire that had Vader observed it from a distance away, would have assumed it to be a natural formation on the surface. Up close though, one can clearly see many architectural anomalies that clearly show that the spire was artificially created. Such as the giant rusted gates big enough to fit a small tank through marking the entrance.

Vaders gaze falls from the tallest spire of the factory to the group of beings waiting patiently in a small group for Dooku to reach them. There are two well-dressed Neimoidians, one of which he imminently recognizes as Nute Gunray, an important figure in the Trade Federation, the other is probably his aid. Beside them stands a rather anxious looking creature he doesn't recognize. He is the same ugly brownish red as the ground and has four jittery wings twitching by his side. He has a long, fleshy beard and holds a walking stick in one hand. Vader can only assume that he is a native of the planet, since he had to study all of the populous space-faring sentients in the galaxy, and this species wasn't one of them. Several other creatures, similar to the one with the walking stick stand guard. Though they stand more upright and have no beard accenting their faces. And finally, a glittering silver protocol droid stands beside the group. Well, Vader is sure that at some point the droid was indeed silver. It seems that it has been on this planet for quite a while, as a thick layer of red now sticks to its metal skin.

"Count Dooku, you are most welcome to geonosis. I hope you will be pleased with our progress" Gunray says, his voice so full of false flattery it hurts. The neimoidians red eyes glance at Vader briefly, and he sees an expression of annoyance cross his face for only a moment, before his attention returns to Dooku. Vader refrains from rolling his eyes at the stupid viceroy. Who is he to judge him?

"Viceroy, I am pleased to meet your acquaintance once more" Dooku replies politely.

The geonisian at their side clicks and splutters in a language Vader has never heard before. It seems nobody else understands him either though, because once he has finished they all reflexively look to the protocol droid.

"Poggle the lesser welcomes Count Dooku to join him in a tour of the facility, if it pleases the Count" the droid says in a perky tone.

"That would be amenable" The Dooku says with a crisp nod. The stiff conversation ends at that and the group makes its way over to the giant metal doors. They slide open with a low groan to reveal a completely dark interior. However after a few minutes inside Vader's vision adjusts to the light levels of the building, allowing him to see that they were being lead down a long corridor which eventually leads out into an absolutely massive sprawling factory hundreds of stories high.

The orange glow of fire and molten metal illuminates thousands upon thousands of incomplete droid skeletons being carried through the air on long conveyer belts that criss-cross past each other over and over throughout every level. Thunderous banging and whizzing noises beat to the consistent thrum of the engines fueling the factory. The hissing of molten durasteel sizzling against the cold surface of compactors chimes into the steady beeps and purrs droids being assembled in perfect unison through the entire facility. Vader likens it to a marvelous orchestra of flawless design, where every instrument works perfectly against the other to create the most perfect sounds he has ever heard.

Geonosis may be a wasteland upon the surface, but inside her rocky constructions are treasure troves of the likes Vader is sure he will never see again. He can't help but slow to a near stop and gaze in awe at the workings around him. It's beautiful. The burning smell of raw metal is like a field of summer flowers to him. The pure efficiency of it all makes everything out to be an elegant, well-practiced dance between the constructors and the constructed.

He spots what must be an entire legion fully wired battle droids having their exoskeletons assembled at superhuman speeds by huge construction droids with long arms armed with different tools. As if in a daze, he slowly walks over to them, watching in fascination as the construction droids finish their work and send the batch flying up to the top of the facility on a single large belt.

He watches them until they disappear behind a large droid pouring durasteel unto another belt. Then he allows his eyes to drop back down to the floor, to see the empty walkway in front of him. Wait, where is Dooku? A sudden pang of fear jolts through his chest. Not that he is scared of getting lost, quite the contrary. He would just love to lose himself in this factory and never have to leave again. No, the fact that Dooku will eventually notice that he is missing is the true cause of the encroaching panic coiling around his chest like a snake.

He quickly jolts his head around in search of where they might have gone, but there are literally _hundreds_ of entrances and exits on the ground floor. And there isn't a single life form around for him to ask for directions. _Ah Sithpit!_ He needs to get back to his master before he realizes that he isn't following anymore, which has probably already happened. But maybe if he is quick enough he can convince Dooku that he had needed to... use the restroom or something. Better Dooku thinks he has a poor bladder than a poor sense of orientation. Dooku would see him getting lost as a sign of weakness and literally beat some orientation training into him. But he couldn't fault him for something he has no control over, like needing to go relieve himself. The most he could do was scold Vader for not informing him before leaving, right?

He curses to himself then reaches into the force. It answers almost instantly, and quickly flows through his built up frustration. It starts to nudge him forward. Vader allows the force to guide him through the facility; he keeps his eyes closed in concentration, and raises his arms out in front of him in the hopes of not bumping into anything as he walks. Really, he must look insane to anyone who might see him, walking around a fully operational droid factory filled with molten metal with his _eyes closed_ and his arms waving about around him like a bad mime act.

But, despite the crude effort, it pulls results. The orchestra of construction slowly fades into silence as he walks down a long corridor to his destination. The force obviously has a clear direction in mind, and he can feel he is going in the right way. So when it beckons that he has arrived, he happily opens his eyes expecting to be in a position to spot his master, but of course, the force never gives answers that simple.

He is in a tiny room. At least, tiny compared to where he had just been. The room is just a few feet wide, and contains nothing but five curious looking droids attached to the far wall. They are bigger than battle droids, with a grey surface rather than beige. And one of their arms has been repurposed as a gun.

The droid on the far left is the most incomplete, its skeleton is showing underneath what Vader would presume to be plating made out of a cheaper metal. Given that it's a deep brown color and covered in scratches. The edges of the droids plating are rough and bent in places. The gun hasn't been fully finished, and reveals the inner workings of the droids wiring.

However the droid on the far right looks to be finished. Its shiny grey surface is sleek and well made, the face of the droid (which lies on the chest) looks to be done, and the gun arm seems to be armed and ready for use. The droids in between show the slow progression from what seems to be the first prototype build to the finished model.

Curious, Vader looks over to the console by the door. On it reads 'progression of the B2super battle droid'. _Well that's useful_ , Vader thought sarcastically. _I already know that_. He can't get any more information without entering the security code so instead he moves to examine the line of droids in greater detail. Each one is named from one to five, with the one on the far left being deemed B2-001 and the final B2-005.

These must be the droids Dooku will be inspecting; the force brought him here knowing Dooku will come this way. He thanks the force silently for its guidance. Maybe now that he is here early, the count won't be so inclined to punish him when they get home. He begins to relax just a bit, and with nothing better to do, he looks at the droids in silent appreciation of their craftsmanship. A tiny smile curls around the corners of his lips. If there is one thing that can always put Vader in a good mood, it's a droid.

But within minutes Vader hears the counts distinctive voice echo down the corridor outside. Making him even more pleased; he won't even have to wait long either. But then a very evil-sounding cackling follows Dookus voice; the kind that would cause little children to start crying. It was so horrid and cruel that it almost reminded Vader of… no, it couldn't be. That wasn't _Palpatines_ evil -sounding cackle, was it? His smile quickly drops to a frown as he tries in vain to swallow the uneasy lump in his throat. What would Palpatine be doing here?

He can feel cold anxiety grip him again. Dooku may be scary, but at least Vader understands him. He usually knows how far he can push with Dooku before getting in trouble. And he knows what type of discipline he will receive for failure. But Palpatine, he is a completely different story. Most of the time, Vader can't even tell what Palpatine wants from him. And he rarely ever sees master Sidious, as he spends most of his time on Coruscant. It must have been a year since his last visit to Serenno.

"All in good time, Darth tyrannous"

A sinking fear sticks, despite his best efforts. It _is_ Palpatine, he is the only person who _ever_ refers to Dooku like that. He can feel a cold sweat form just above his eyebrows. He had never failed in front of Palpatine before, and has no idea what the man would do when he saw that he had managed to get kriffing lost. The talking is getting louder. Dooku knows he is here, but Palpatine doesn't. Maybe he can hide until they have left and reappear when Dooku is on his own. That way, avoiding failing in front of Palpatine altogether _. It's not an action of weakness_ , he tells himself, _just a strategic maneuver aimed at preserving ones well-being._

His eyes quickly dart around the room for anything that he could squeeze behind. He notices a bunch of crates in the far corner beside the oldest prototype. Well, it isn't much but maybe if he tries to not breathe too loudly it might just work. He turns towards the crates.

"Ah, young Vader. What a pleasant surprise" Palpatine purrs from the entrance behind him. His body jolts at the sounds of his master's voice. He was to slow. A flurry of fear stiffens his entire body, and he imminently hesitates. But he can't hesitate. That's a sign of weakness.

So instead, he takes a deep breath and gathers his face into the best detached neutral expression he can muster. Then he turns to face them. Sidious is standing in the doorway, wearing a thick black robe with the hood up to hide his features just like Vader. But surprisingly, it's not Sidious that causes the apprentices breath to catch in his throat. It's Dooku, who is standing behind him, with a completely enraged expression on his face.

"Master, I apologize. The boy is never able to follow instructions. I will see that he is punished at once" Dooku says with hurried anger. He moves to walk past Palpatine to get to Vader, whose heart nearly skips a beat at the sight of the man stepping towards him. But Palpatine gently raises a hand to halt Dookus approach. Vaders eyes dart between his two masters, Dookus face morphs into confusion. He looks down at Palpatines still from questioningly.

"That will be unnecessary, Lord Tyrannous. I am sure young Vader has a logical reason for this excursion" His tone is oddly empathetic. It almost reminds Vader of a kindly Grandfather rather than a Sith lord. Now Dooku is so angry that his face is turning bright red. He turns to stare straight into Vaders eyes like an enraged monster, which makes him more than a little uneasy as his mind races to come up with a good explanation for his disappearance.

"Masters, I… was just inspecting these new prototypes. The force guided me here to them" He says hesitantly, knowing very well that Dooku had earlier ordered him to stay by his side while _he_ inspected the droids, but hoping the count hadn't informed Palpatine of this minor detail.

A smile spreads across the lower half of Palpatines face, but Dooku's scowl only worsens.

"Ah, and tell me young Vader, what have you gathered from your inspection?"

Vader can feel his face getting red. He quickly turns around to view the droids once more, in a weak mock attempt to look as if in contemplation when in reality he is trying to gather as much as he can from the five droids in order to jumble together some sort of report to give to Palpatine.

"They are arranged to allow one to see the progression of the droids design. With the first droid-" Vader motions to B2-001 on the far left "being little more than a blueprint. As you can see it neither has a functional blaster nor the sensory capacities to fire one. One the other hand the droid on the far right…"

For the next fifteen minutes, Vader continues to list out every little detail he can gather from the wall of droids. With his vast knowledge of droids thanks to his life on Tatooine, he quickly eases into his report and every time he is about to finish, he finds something else to say about them. He lists off the builds of their circuit boards, the way their wires are positioned, the optimum coding programs that would be needed to insure that they ran properly. He even notes ways that they could be improved in his little mini speech. Eventually though, he runs out of things to say, causing a creeping fear to work its way back into his gut. His little escape into droid land had ended, though hopefully Palpatine would be impressed enough by his knowledge of droids to give him a pass.

He turns to see his masters staring at him. Dooku still wears an angry face, though he looks more resigned to whatever his master is planning now than he had before. Palpatine on the other hand, is wearing an even longer smile than he had been. Nothing happens for a few moments, but then, Palpatine slowly walks over to Vader. His approaching from sends darts of fear flying though his body.

He raises a hand as if he is about to strike him, and Vader nearly flinches away, but instead of slapping his face, Palaptines hand falls gently on Vaders shoulder.

"Hmmmmm. Very impressive, young Vader. Very impressive indeed" Palpatine purrs.

He quietly exhales the breath he had been holding.

"Your knowledge of droids is considerable. I was unaware that Lord Tyrannous was teaching you so much on this particular subject"

Vader watches as Dookus face morphs for only a second between anger and fear, then back to anger again.

"A personal hobby of his, master. I assure you that I have been focusing his training around the traditional Sith method." He says quicker than he usually would.

But despite Dookus seeming uneasiness, Palpatine only laughs in response. It's a low, cold chuckle that's far too slow to be one of actual amusement.

"You like working with droids, young vader?" Palpatine asks with the same grandfatherly voice.

"Um, yes master" Vader replies uneasily.

"Hmmmmmmmm" Sidious hums slowly as his gaze drifts across the line of droids.

"Would you like one of these?" He asks kindly.

The question takes Vader by surprise, neither of his masters had ever given him anything. He quietly wonders what has caused Palpatine to do so now.

"I-I uh, yes master" He replies truthfully. Some may view the prototypes as obsolete to the finished model, but Vader thinks quite the contrary. Prototypes are often far more flexible by design, and allow whoever is working on them to easily modify and upgrade them. Finished droid designs often have locked parameters and almost always require very specific parts to function that one could only ever find on the production line.

And of course, the fact that _Palpatine_ is offering him a droid makes it impossible to refuse.

"Master, these droids are required as blueprints on which the finished models will be based off of. To remove them from here would be to put the production output back months" Dooku says. His face is less red now, and he looks in control. But his tone says otherwise.

Vader looks up to Sidious in an attempt to garner his mood, and sees that his master is still smiling. Sidious looks down upon vader, and the smile only grows more. His eyes glisten with a malice Vader never saw before. It makes him scared, had he said something wrong? Is this the face he will see crushing his mind with the force?

"Is that true, young Vader?" Palpatine asks slowly. He draws out every syllable in his lips, as if he is reveling in the moment.

"Well… yes. Um, but only with the newest models. The first 001 unit isn't needed, as all of its components have been redesigned by the time you reach the 005 unit. It's useless in comparison" He says sheepishly.

Palpatine cackles again, and he seems to enjoy this laugh more too. His chest thumps heartily inside his robes with each chuckle.

"Very well, young Vader. Consider the 001 unit as a parting gift from me, to encourage you to always improve upon your skills. I'm sure you will make a great technician when you're older" There is that honey-sweet voice again. Though, this time Vader feels a little less threatened by it. Palpatine had actually given him something, and for absolutely nothing to. How kind of him. Maybe he isn't as bad as Vader thought he was after all. As his mother always said, 'appearances can be deceiving'

Palpatine smiles down at Vader one last time before lifting his hand off his shoulder and turning to walk to the door. It's then that the realization of what just happened hits Vader. He has a droid. His very own droid! He dares to feel excited, allowing the feeling to spread across his body, relaxing his tense muscles and untying the knot in his stomach.

"I have seen all I need, the droids may be put into production" He stops just at the exit, dangerously close to Dooku, "And Vader, I expect to see that unit in top condition next time I come to visit Sereeno"

"Yes master!" Vader says enthusiastically

Palpatine looks a Dooku for a moment longer, then leaves through the door. Dooku however, remains glaring at Vader for a few longer moments. His lips tighten in quiet fury. And just like that, the knot reforms.

"You will go to my shuttle and remain there until we leave" He spits before turning and leaving with a flurry of his cape.

All of his joy quickly drains away and is replaced again with dread. It's likely that the count will still be eager to punish him for getting lost, and now he seems extra angry. Though Vader still can't tell why. Palpatine seemed very happy. And if Palpatine is happy with what has happened, then shouldn't Dooku? He shrugs, figuring that he will probably never know what his masters are really planning and instead turns to look at his new possession.

The skeleton is too stiff. The armor is misshapen. The head is hanging off its socket. The joints are so poorly crafted that the droid probably can't even bend its knees and its leaking oil all over the floor. It's a pile of junk. But it's his pile of junk.

"Come on B2, we better get back to the ship"

* * *

 **Phew! That was a long chapter to write! But I think it was worth it though, as I was trying to covey how Vader can flip flop from being a hot-headed Sith lord to a rather innocent and naive child within a matter of seconds whether he likes it or not. And no matter how hard he tries to be an adult, he is still only thirteen and rather clueless about all of the plotting going on around him. Also, new character! B2 probably won't play a huge role in the story, but I really wanted to give Vader a friend to keep him company on Sereeno. Because lets accept it, Dooku is kind of an ass to Vader.**

 **I've really been getting into this story lately so I'll probably be updating it rather regularly. I may however try to backlog some chapters for when I return to school in September, as I will have very little time to write. But I want to try to keep updating my stories nonetheless and backlogging seems like the best option open to me right now.**

 **Future aside, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you everyone for your kind comments!**


	6. Chapter 6

B2's slanted red eyes flicker to life, causing his new owners to widen with anticipation. It has taken several hours to clean out the droids insides, which had been lathered by oil after its inner fuel supply imploded, meaning that leak Vader had spotted when first seeing the droid turned into a small tsunami when he opened up its chest plate. But now, one brand new fuel storage unit later (along with several days of repair works), Vader is finally seeing some life in his new possession.

"Can you hear me?" He asks wearily, after the droid remains motionless.

"Sensory systems operating at 67%, extensive damage received to mobile systems, estimated operating efficiency: 19%" Comes a deep droning voice that crackles in and out of existence briefly as it speaks.

"Uh, ok. Can you see me do this?" He asks as he waves his oily hand in front of B2's eyes.

"Movement detected" An odd screeching noise erupts from its chest "functioning system set to: Lethal. Engaging target"

The screeching gets louder as B2 attempts to raise its wrist blaster. Thankfully for Vader the droids arms are completely non-functional.

"Wait, no! Don't shoot me; I'm on your side!" He exclaims loudly as the droid jerks and rattles violently on the repair stand.

"Error! Error! Weapon systems offline. Reactivate weapon systems to continue trial"

"Like hell I'm reactivating your weapons" he mutters as he fumbles with the rainforest of wires he has pulled from the droids chest plate.

"Error! Unknown functioning system. Error!"

"Yes I know, give me a minute" Vader snaps as he pulls a red wire out of its socket to replace it with a green and blue one.

The droid seems to die as he clicks the wires into place, however just as he is about to start fumbling again the red eyes flicker back on.

"Sensory systems operating at 67%, extensive damage received-"

"-to mobile systems. I got it. Are you going to try to shoot me this time?"

The droid remains silent for a few moments, as if mulling over the question he had asked.

"Human youngling detected within sensory range, estimated threat level: low"

"I am _not_ a youngling" Vader growls at the droid. "And I'll have you know that my threat level isn't 'low'"

"Error! Functioning systems indicate poor combative value of average human youngling. Previous statement does not compute"

"I'm _not_ a youngling!"

"Error! Only life-form detected: Human youngling"

Is this robot sassing him? Seriously?

"I'm not a youngling. I'm Darth Vader and I'm a Sith"

"Error! Unknown species: Sith. Cataloging species: Sith"

He scrubs his face with his hand, willing away the mounting frustration building up within him.

"Can you move your legs?" He finally says after a long few moments.

"Extensive damage received to mobile systems. Repair mobile systems to continue trial"

Vader sighs and steps up unto the repair platform. He pulls his trusty hyperspanner off the workbench, absently twirling it in his hands as he examines the droids legs.

"Did your knee sockets _ever_ move?"

"Error! Unknown command"

"I think I'm going to have to update your processing unit" he mumbles quietly as he bends over to look closer at the wiring in its legs. "And everything else too"

* * *

Pain. Excruciating, mind-numbing pain. Everywhere. He screams as something metal forces its way into his abdomen. He tries to fight it, pushing with all of his power but the restrains holding him in place make any escape impossible.

The two burning white lights of a droids eyes sear past the stars in his vision. He bites his tongue in an attempt to stop the screams, but every touch is agony.

So _pathetic_! An angry cry of hatred rings in his ears. The whizzing of some machine signals the start of another round of incisions. They cut through his body mercilessly, caring little about the cries of their 'patient'. His cheeks feel wet. _Weak! Weak! Weak!_

He wants to throw up. He wants to curl into a small ball and cry and wretch and just _die._ It's so painful he can't even remember where he is; only that something is drilling into his very bones.

"Stop!" He manages to yell in between gasping breaths.

A cruel laugh echoes in the distance, sending his blood boiling. Yet it doesn't stop, it will never stop. A heavy black mist descends over his conscience; it's so thick its smothering him. He heaves in a coughing breath, struggling to get enough air into his lungs as his body racks and pulls against the pain. It won't leave, why won't it just leave!?

"Stop" He croaks again, his hoarse voice barely managing a whisper. Everything is blurry; he can feel his brain sloshing around in his head. Yet, as all semblance of thought disappears, the pain remains.

It will always remain. Always. Always. Always.

* * *

Vader pulls with all of his might against the broken knee socket in B2's leg. He has to get it out and replace it with something that's at least remotely functional, but despite the fact that he has loosened all of the bolts that were supposed to be the _only_ things holding the knee in place, it won't move.

"Why"

He places a boot on the droids hip and pushes away with his legs. He keeps pulling, pouring all of his strength into moving the blasted thing.

"Wont" His hands go numb and his legs shake under the pressure. A deep groan emanates from within B2, but he keeps.

"You just"

Something snaps, and suddenly Vader finds himself sailing across the floor, bringing b2's lower leg with him. He crashes against the back wall with a loud 'bang' that vibrates into the ground.

"…work" he sighs, and grabs the knee joint now attached to the piece of b2's leg. And as if to spite him, it bends like a charm.

He looks back at his droid, and sees that the upper half of the B2's leg is still as stiff as stone on the repair stand. He shakes his head at it; never in his life has he encountered a droid so vehemently against any attempt at repair. Part of him is tempted to just rip the droids completely _solid_ legs off and have it crawl around with its arms. Though, to his eternal frustration, they don't want to work either.

The shrill beeping of Vader's comm draws his attention to his wrists. Instantly, a frown forms on Vader's features; Dooku. He gets up, and is about to press 'answer' when he notices that he is covered head to toe in oil and grease. Dooku hates it when Vader is anything but pristine. In fact, he is sure that the Count despises dirt more than the Jedi, and that's saying something. Cursing silently to himself, he wipes his hands on his filthy tunic and trots back to the workbench in search of anything reflective. He quickly spots a chunk of polished steel, which serves nicely as a makeshift mirror.

If anyone had seen him now, for the first time, they would have assumed he had been born with soot-black hair rather than blonde. His face is also covered in dirt, so much so that it looks like he has a big black beard stretching from each ear and down to his chin.

He roughly rubs his arm across his face, which only smears more dirt along his cheeks.

"Dammit"

The comm's consistent beeping serves like a ticking clock. He soon realizes that there is nothing he can do about his appearance. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he answers the comm.

A blue hologram displaying a miniature version of Count Dooku appears on his wrist. Despite his masters small, almost comical size, he still manages to intimidate Vader.

"I do hope I'm not disturbing you, apprentice" Dooku asks sarcastically, clearly annoyed by the wait.

"Forgive me master, I-I uh am trying to repair the droid" he answers somewhat sheepishly.

"A Sith never tries" Dooku hisses condescendingly "he does"

"Yes, master"

Dooku shakes his head in annoyance as he looks over Vader's appearance.

"I will be receiving guests momentarily, remain in your room until we are finished"

A feeling of disappointment falls upon him. He can't bring B2 to his room, meaning he will have to sit around and do nothing up there rather than actually try to fix it, which is beyond inefficient. If Dooku keeps calling him away like this he will never get it repaired.

"Can I stay in the workshop?" He dares to ask.

Dooku's face hardens at the question; he looks as though Vader just insulted him.

"No. Go to your room and take a shower" He barks. "That's an order, apprentice"

Dookus image fizzles away, leaving Vader alone to growl out a breath of frustration. He knows the guests won't be coming down to the workshop; it is not as though he will be disturbing them down here. So why was Dooku making him go to his room?

He paces over to B2 and carelessly drops the droids leg beside it. Dooku doesn't trust him. That is the only logical reason as to why he would want to keep him locked far away from anything important like this. Why doesn't he trust him? All he ever does is what he is told! He does everything in his power to be the perfect apprentice and yet Dooku _still_ treats him like an imposter. If he hates him so much why did he even bother to buy him in the first place?

That empty feeling starts to overtake him again as he leaves the workshop and strides down the hallway, wallowing in the sinking sensation swirling around his gut.

He gets in the elevator and punches in the right level then leans against the back wall, not caring if his stained clothes dirty it. He should feel something but he doesn't, not really. There is little more nowadays but fear, anger and nothing. And it always seems to go in that order. He starts off scared of Dooku, and then his master says something either so illogical or purposely cruel that Vader can't help but get angry at him and then, for reasons he can't explain, he just loses it all. It is as though he becomes void of any feeling. Like a big black hole decided to move into his soul and suck up anything and everything it held.

Maybe it's because he knows he can't act on his anger; doing so would undoubtedly result in the Count devising some horrific scheme to force Vader back into submission. Maybe it's because he has simply forgotten what it is like to feel anything but fear and anger. Or maybe he's just kriffing crazy.

The door opens and he starts down the familiar route to the residential sector of the palace when a hacking cough stops him. Frowning, he looks around, and then notices the open balcony just beside the elevator. A balcony overlooking the walkway towards the palace.

Another hacking cough wafts through it, causing Vader to raise an eyebrow. Is that one of Dooku's guests? Whatever it is it sounds like it should be in a hospital, not here.

What sort of creature even makes that noise? Something tugs him towards the balcony. He really should just go to his room. He should just turn around right now and do what he is told; an apprentice always obeys his master. Always.

' _He doesn't trust you, why should you trust him?_ ' the emptiness beckons from deep within his mind. _'You're not a child any longer, you deserve answers'_

 _Sithpit._

Vader sneaks towards the balcony, keeping his head low in case anyone outside should spot him.

' _You're being stupid_ , _turn around before Dooku spots you'_ another voice whispers against the emptiness.

Cautiously, he exits unto the balcony, and peers over its bannister. It's late at night, and the moon remains hidden behind heavy clouds, so Vader can't make out much in the dark. He feels his heart rate pick up on his chest, but pushes back against the shivering need inside of him to run to his room.

He needs to find out what's going on. He _deserves to know._

The headlights of ship switch off in the distance. Whoever they are, they have just arrived. Yet he still can't make out anyone nearby. His gaze turns to the pair of lights standing guard at the entrance to the palace. If they are going to enter, they will have to pass through those lights at some point.

"I am sure such a ship would be of great use against the republic" Dooku says as he steps into the light.

"The ion cannon will be unstoppable when completed" the hoarse mechanical voice of Dookus guest wheezes.

Vader holds his breath as a metallic claw enters the light, he can almost make out the figure it belongs to, who still remains shrouded by darkness. Whatever it is, it's huge.

He isn't kept guessing for long though, because the impatient creature clanks into view beside Dooku, and Vader has to stifle a gasp. At first, he thinks it's another droid; it's bigger than normal and carry's itself like an organic but it's most definitely metal. Then he spots the pair of organic reptilian eyes glaring straight at the count.

He creature coughs again, drawing Vader's to its chest, where he sees a pair of disheveled lungs protected underneath its armor. Its… it's disgusting. Putrid green goop sticks to the monsters chest and eyes, and for a moment he almost pities the creature, it's obvious it that it is struggling to breath. He can't imagine what it must be like to find it hard to do something so basic. But then he remembers that Sith don't pity those who struggle, or anyone for that matter. So he suppresses the feeling.

The doors to the palace slide open underneath him, Dooku and his guest enter, leaving Vader alone once again. He got what he came for; he saw who Dooku is entertaining. He should go back to his room.

But he can't. Maybe if Dooku's guest had been someone boring like, force forbid, Gunray. He would have saved himself the inevitable boredom of listening the sniveling creature's endless flattery and mindless begging. But that isn't any Neimoidian. He isn't even sure what that thing is. But he's sure that he's going to find out.

Vader quickly heads for the elevator and sets its course for the bottom floor. They were talking about using a ship against the republic, a ship with some sort of ion cannon. Does Dooku have plans for such a ship hidden somewhere in the palace? The doors swoosh open and he is on the ground floor.

"Once you have proven to me you are capable of completing basic training I will consider your rank, Grievous" echoes the condoning voice of his masters ahead.

Vader follows their voices as the pair descend into the lower levels of the palace, towards the training rooms.

He sneaks quickly along the black walls of the lower levels, allowing the force to take him through the quietest path. He nears a corner, and peers around it to spot Dooku and Grievous standing outside the combat arena. The count enters his code and the doors slide open, illuminating both figures with the bright white lights inside.

The two enter, and the dark side pushes for him to follow. He shouldn't. Dooku will almost definitely spot him, and if he doesn't he will sense him. Yet, as if possessed by a phantom, Vaders legs carry him through the door just before it closes. He darts over to one of the many pillars holding up the massive room as Dooku and Grevious head to the weapons stand.

Dooku hands Grievous something, but Vader can't see exactly what from this angle.

An odd meld between coughing, gasping, and laughing erupts from Grievous , its body shuddering as it does so, or is it a 'he'? Vader still can't decide whether it's actually a person or not.

"A lightsaber" it (he?) says with surprised approval.

"An elegant weapon. One for civilized creatures. One you will be taught to wield with finesse, not barbaric brutality"

A shudder runs through Vader, is.. is Dooku training _others_? Its Sith code for a master to have only _one_ apprentice.

Dooku steps away from Grievous and moves to the center of the room, then activates his own blade. Grievous narrows his own eyes and activates his blade also.

"A Jedi will seek to use the force to overpower you, so you must use everything at your disposal to overpower the Jedi before they can strike" Dooku barks as he attacks Grievous with a powerful force push.

Grievous digs his claws into the ground and somehow manages to withstand the attack, then he pounces towards Dooku and they engage in combat.

Dooku strikes Grievous with a bout of lightning, which sends him careening into the weapons rack with an angry roar.

"A Jedi will always be unpredictable. You must be prepared to fight against anything they throw at you"

Grevious snarls at the count, then picks up three more lightsabers from the shelf. To Vader's surprise, his arms split into two, and he ignites a lightsaber in each arm.

"Who is to say I am not unpredictable?" Grievous says with another hacking laugh.

What is this thing? Why in the galaxy is Dooku training it? Is he another apprentice? No, he can't be. The thing doesn't have an active force presence. Besides, a master only has apprentice, right? Yet, why else would Dooku be training him? Vader's eyes narrow as paranoia and suspicion dig their filthy claws into his mind.

Grievous swirls his hands around so fast he may as well be holding four red shields instead of lightsabers. He steps towards Dooku, the blades spin faster and faster, sending sparks of burnt orange flooring flying off the ground. The noise of all four sabers spinning at once sounds like thunder that barrels across the arena, it blocks out all other noise. Suddenly, his master intercepts all four blades at once with a single, well placed jab, silencing the thunder. Yet the fight continues.

' _Dooku's going to replace you_ ' the darkness whispers into his ear.

No he wouldn't, not after all he has been through. Not after all he has lost. Dooku couldn't. His mother…

Full of fear once more, Vader looks back at the entrance. He has to leave, he can't stand to watch this any longer. He can't be training a new apprentice, that… no, he doesn't have an active force signature, he's _not_ another apprentice. He's not!

Five sabers clash violently as both combatants push against the others power. They're both so embroiled in their battle that neither notices the doors to the combat arena slide open and then close again a few moments later.

Vader stalks down the hallway, the dark side swirls around the him. It's drawn to him like a moth to a flame. It leeches off his fear, and in return it plants doubt and anger. Its attacks him with such intensity that he can't help but slam his fist against the elevator as it takes him back to his room. Why?! Why is Dooku doing this? Is he toying with him? Is this another stupid test?! He leans his forehead against the elevator, pushing against it with all his might. What even is Grevious?

'He's nothing' something inside of him hisses. 'Compared to you'

He heaves a stressed breath. Dooku couldn't replace him. Without his apprenticeship, what is he? He is no one. Darth Vader is a Sith apprentice. Darth Vader has _killed_ , has _murdered._ What else could he ever hope to be now? What… what would his mother think…

'You _are_ a Sith, you will stay a Sith' the darkness growls.

A flurry of power courses through his veins. The dark side takes and takes, but Vader doesn't care. He doesn't want his emotions any more. The black hole smiles at his thoughts, and in return it gives him its strength.

'And you will become the most powerful Sith to have ever existed'

Suddenly, he starts to feel very angry. He will prove to Dooku that he is worth more than that thing, that forceless beast. Grievous is nothing compared to Vader's potential! Palpatine himself says he will be more powerful than any being in the galaxy.

He _is_ Darth Vader, he _is_ Dooku's apprentice, and Grievous can't stop him. He won't allow it! The darkness keeps pulling and pulling, it's relentless against his mind.

'Give in' the black hole purrs softly, a stark contrast against the maelstrom of emotions racking against him. 'give in to me and I will give you the galaxy'

* * *

 **Hello all! I don't know why, but I wasn't particularly happy with this chapter, I re-wrote it a few times but it still feels.. lacking in something. yet I cant quiet put my finger on what exactly that is. Despite this gnawing feeling, I'm pretty sure that this is the best version of the chapter that I managed to write, so I'm just going to roll with it.**

 **My own personal turmoil aside, you're going to see a bit of a growth jump in the next chapter, so prepare for *drum roll*...**

 **ANGSTY (and hopefully not whiny) TEEN VADER YAAAAAAY!**


	7. Chapter 7

Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi knight and protector of all freedom in the Galaxy, fearless guardian of the light side and respected member of the revered Jedi order, is a little nervous. In fact, he is more than a little nervous. He is, for lack of a better word, terrified.

Those who know him causally would probably assume everything to be fine, especially by the way he is carrying himself down the grand hall of the temple, with his face held high and his arms swinging confidently by his sides. But of course, it is all little more than a ruse. A ruse that Obi-Wan almost believes himself, but a ruse nonetheless.

He spots the small figure of master Yoda approaching between two of the tall columns that hold up the large entrance, and reluctantly slows his death-march to meet with him. Not that he doesn't like talking to the old master, quite the contrary, Obi-Wan often turns Yoda for advice, but right he is a little too anxious to find his current task.

"Master Yoda" he says politely in greeting, trying his very beset to appear in control.

The ancient master smiles warmly at Obi-Wan, and it's immediately obvious with the twinkle in his eyes that Yoda knows very well how he is feeling. It only makes Obi-Wan more on edge, how many other people have noticed his frayed nerves?

"Nervous, you are, Knight Kenobi, hmm?"

Obi-Wan can't help it when his façade falls away momentarily at Yoda's words. The Jedi master's eyes look between Obi-Wans, he chuckles softly as his gaze turns towards the outside world. Yoda seems rather at ease for such a situation, in fact Obi-Wan is certain the Yoda is actually enjoying himself. Force knows how, when the life of another sentient being is being placed within _his_ hands.

"Master, if I may be honest, I'm not as sure as the council is on my abilities in this… area" He says awkwardly as they walk towards the entrance, forcing himself to take smaller steps as he keeps in line with Yoda's, slow, almost sleepy pace.

"A strong Jedi, you are Obi-Wan. Capable of this responsibility, I know you are." Yoda says with certainty as he hobbles along beside him.

He can only hope the grand master is right, after all, who is he to disobey the council? The soft yellow glow of the setting sun pours from the great entrance gates ahead of them. He catches sight of his new… responsibility waiting for them with crossed arms by the large gates.

'Deep breaths Kenobi' he tells himself. He should trust in the grand masters judgment. Every Jedi does this, so it can't be _that_ difficult, right? All he has to do is be mindful of his emotions, and pass on his knowledge and wisdom to the next generation. But then again, what if he fails in that regard? What if he just so happens to be the worst teacher in the entire order and his new protégés future education is all but ruined? After all, he has never taught anyone before, how can he know if it's something he is capable of?

As they approach, Obi-Wan does everything within his power to plaster a welcoming smile upon his face. But it quickly crumbles into a disconcerted frown when he notices the girl's age. She is way to you for this. In fact, he has never seen anyone so young with a braid before. So young, that he is just about ready to turn to master Yoda and exclaim that she needs a few more years, or at the very least a more experienced master, when Yoda suddenly seems to de-age by about a hundred years and moves at near light-speed over to the girl before he can say anything in protest.

"Ready for your first mission with your master, I hope you are young padawan" Yoda tells the girl with a broad smile as Obi-Wan reaches them.

Now that he can see her up close, he recognizes her as a Togruta, with warm orange skin and white markings on her youthful face. The girl, to her credit, doesn't seem the slightest bit anxious.

"Of course, master Yoda" She says respectfully, but Obi-Wan doesn't miss the excited tone in her voice, or the cheeky smile playing on her lips.

Then she turns to Obi-Wan, and instead of bowing, (which would be the appropriate thing to do) she puts her hands on her hips and tilts her head at him.

"Master Kenobi, my name is Ahsoka Tano, it's an honor to be your' new apprentice"

From that smirk, Obi-Wan can already tell that this isn't going to be as easy as he hoped.

* * *

Vader can't help but stare out at the endless forest of skyscrapers spanning out in front of him. Thousands upon thousands of speeders zip in between them in long lines or air traffic, though from here, they almost looks like long lines of busy ants.

He doesn't know why he is here, in the works of the Coruscant; the place that is (or at least once was) the center of industry on the planet. But he is sure Dooku has some reason for bringing him here, if only his master would actually _tell_ him what's going on. Apparently sixteen is way too young to be trusted with such valuable information.

Actually, (despite the fact the he is undoubtedly going to learn why they are here in the very near future) if he had somehow managed to gain such intimate knowledge on their way here who knows what might have happened. The end of existence as they know it? The galaxy falling apart? The eternal suffering of every being to have been born ever? Or worst of all, his masters surprise being ruined? Vader scoffs as he thinks. Sixteen is practically an adult; the fact that Dooku is withholding information from him is an insult.

The doors behind him open and he turns to see a rusted protocol droid shuffle out and into the main floor of the abandoned factory. Vader can't help but cringe at the beings poor apparel; it's obvious that this one was left behind when this place was closed.

"Master Dooku will see you know" the droid states politely before shuffling away.

He sighs with relief, even speaking to his master is better than waiting out here with nothing to do for another hour. Yet, Vader's eyes harden as he walks into a cramped makeshift headquarters. It's cold and metal just like everything else in the works. Steam hisses out of an exhaust port on the wall, it sinks down to join the white mist gathering on the grated floor. Grime and rust stains the moody room, and a strong smell of chemicals fills his nose.

A blood-red holographic map of Coruscants Dacho district floats upon the large central holo-projector that serves as the only light in the room. But Vader doesn't need light to sense his master's scornful presence. Dooku steps around the table. The mist runs from his dark robes, flying carelessly into the air for a few seconds before falling in defeat once more.

"Master" Vader says in mock respect as Dooku faces him. He feels nothing but contempt for his mentor, but whether Dooku is aware of his apprentice's bitter submission or not is unclear.

"Darth Vader, you are finally ready to be put to use" The count says, his tone unusually neutral, his face hidden behind a drooping cowl.

"Yes , master" he replies curtly, electing to ignore the use of the word 'finally' in Dookus previous statement.

There is long silence, Dooku remains still like a forgotten statue in the darkness. Vader can feel his master's presence brush against his, causing bile to gather in his throat. Dooku will _not_ gain entry to his mind. He fights against his masters attempted invasion of his privacy, and pushes the foreign presence away. All the while allowing his hatred to fuel his powers. The signature recedes when he bites back, and Vader has to resist the urge to give chase. Neither men give voice to the Vader's silent mutiny, yet he is sure he can see Dooku's form straighten.

"Darth Sidious may believe you are fit for war, but I am unconvinced" Dooku growls, and though his master is shielding his thoughts just as much as Vader, he can feel a hatred just as strong as his own in Dookus tone.

"You will be meeting with one of Sidious's operatives in the Grungeon block. He will fill you in on your mission's parameters" Dooku says as he lifts a up a small pad with the force and sends it floating towards Vader. He catches the pad as it comes into reach, and then turns it on to see that it's the map of the Dacho district floating in the center of the room.

Vader's eyes lift to meet Dookus. He doesn't need an operative babysitting him on whatever this mission will be, Dooku knows it. He knows it. Dooku is just toying with him, trying to frustrate him by forcing him to work with someone who will undoubtedly be far below his skill level.

"Prove yourself Vader, and perhaps I will consider allowing you to undertake more… independent operations" Dooku states, as if reading his apprentices thoughts.

"Yes, master" Vader states as he suppresses a scowl. He bows, then exits the room. Leaving behind his master before the man can say another word against him.

Dooku's presence vanishes as if it had never even existed when the auto-doors slide closed behind him. Vader too gathers the dark side around him, having it shield his presence. Coruscant is home to the Jedi and their cursed temple, master Sidious would be most displeased if they were to discover his presence. He pulls his long hood over his head in order to hide his yellow eyes, then proceeds quickly to the hangar.

B2 is waiting for him at the foot of his speeder. Its once rusted frame is now polished and well maintained. Any unnecessary features striped from the droids internal systems and replaced with many surprises one wouldn't expect from a super battle droid. Yet in spite of Vader's best efforts, B2 stiffly clanks over to him with as much grace as a rabid bantha.

"Take this" he grunts as he passes B2 the map. Then he jumps into his speeder to begin the power up sequence. B2 holds the datapad to its eyes for a few seconds, then unceremoniously crushes it in its hands before dropping the broken pad to the floor carelessly.

"Download of: 'Dacho district map code' complete" it hums as it drops into the passenger seat of Vader's speeder. B2's voice chip only allows for the droid to speak in one deep, monotone tone. Yet Vader is sure he can hear a hint of excitement in the way the droid speaks. His droid reaches into its lower chest and pulls out a long, custom made cord that it plugs into the speeder. Within seconds the entire map of dacho district is being displayed on the speeders control console.

"Grungeon block" Vader mutters to himself as he looks for the quickest way to reach his destination.

"Mission parameters consist of no adult supervision." B2 drones, but despite the fact that his droid seems completely unable to ask questions, and can do little else but make statements and shout 'error!', Vader can tell what B2 is trying to say.

"No, he's just letting me drive there on my own. We'll be helping one of the chancellor's operatives do… something." he huffs. Vader knows for a fact that he would have been completely capable of carrying out his own mission's _years_ ago. Even master Sidious says that Dooku is holding him back.

Thoroughly annoyed, Vader sets his speeder into motion with several sharp flicks to the controls. It floats up into the air within the grimy hangar, then bursts through the entry and out into the smog-filled air beyond. Plumes of fume and dust from long abandoned factories still rise into the sky, despite the best efforts of local authorities to clean up the works' heavily polluted streets. He dips the speeder down to fly below the traffic lanes above the district, choosing instead to zip between the disheveled ruins that once towered triumphantly into the sky.

This is his first real mission, an opportunity he has been waiting for for years. It's his first real chance to prove himself. He is finally away from Dooku and his stupid pompous accent. There is nothing around but the sky, the speeder, and himself, but he still isn't pleased.

In fact, he feels nothing else but anger. Perhaps he should be content that he feels this way. After all, it's all a Sith is supposed to feel; anger and ambition. Yet some sort of nagging sensation in the back of his mind craves for _more_. Although he has no idea what more he wants. Power, maybe? Recognition of his strength? Probably.

Dooku _always_ underestimates him, and it's infuriating. If the Count had his way Vader would spend his whole life locked away on Serenno. Thankfully master Sidious put in a good word for him and now he is here, doing this mission. Still, just because Sidious wants him in the field, that doesn't mean Dooku isn't going to make him do something completely embarrassing and unjustly menial.

"This had better not end up as some sort of errand mission, B2"

* * *

For Darth Maul, there is nothing but pain. Always. Always. Always.

It never leaves, never submits, and _never_ relents.

It follows him like a sick pup.

Even now, as he stands by his ship, with his arms crossed and his brow furrowed, the pain remains. A pain that goes so much deeper than the simple-minded suffering that burns against his lower body. It's a pain that gnaws at his mind, pulls at his conscience, nags at his every waking moment; the pain of failure.

A failure he is reminded of every time he looks into his masters mocking eyes.

He clenches his teeth at the thought, forcing all of his rage back into the cage he has created for it in his mind. Safely locking it away until it's needed.

And it will be needed, very soon.

Through the smog he spots a speeder heading this way. There is no doubt in his mind that it's Dooku's 'operative', but by now it's clear from the force that this person is really another agent of the dark side, not another force-blind fool. Yet a fool nonetheless, because if he can use the force then he is a threat, and threats die by his hand every day.

The shiny speeder lands not too far away, he narrows his eyes as an acne-covered boy jumps out. He is wearing long black robes and has burning golden eyes that match his scruffy hair. This operative is young, too young.

Another way for his master to mock him, no doubt. Forcing him to work with a _child_ , or rather, babysit a child for this mission.

The boy approaches him, along with some sort of remodeled battle droid, and Maul steps forward, straightening to his full height to glare down at the kid. Who looks back at him with eyes full of arrogance. Arrogance is weakness, yet this one wears it as though it's a medal.

"You're master Sidious's operative" The boy states, with a voice that's cracking in preparation for adulthood.

Such a fool. How can this one look the world as though he owns it when he doesn't even own himself? He can't even bare to look at those eyes full undeserved pride any more. The boy knows nothing, he deserves nothing.

With a hardened glare, he turns back to his ship and marches up the ramp, not bothering to wait for the boy to follow. He can just as easily complete this mission without him.

"Wait!" He hears from outside as he strides towards the cockpit. Maul keeps walking, simple cries wont draw his attention.

Just as he sits down in the pilot's seat the boy bursts in. Not bothering to so much as acknowledge him, he powers up the ship and gets ready to take off.

"Who are you?" the boy asks, still standing at the entryway like a coward.

"My name is irrelevant"

The engine's wailing rises with the ship as he pushes her into the air. The deep red pollution dies away into navy-blue as they reach the atmosphere. He pushes the throttle forward, demanding the ships energy as they break through the hold of the planet. The engines roar with power, daring the atmosphere to keep them trapped for any longer. The planet submits, releasing them into the deep black of outer space.

He codes in their destination into the navi-computer, then angles the ship towards their hyper lane route.

"My master said you would tell me what the mission is" The boy says at last, for one so arrogant, he takes his time before speaking.

No answer escapes his mouth. He will be the one who dictates what is and isn't spoken of, not this youngling. The boy can wait. If he is wise, he will be patient. After all, patience is one of the great strengths of all hunters. Patience to wait for their prey to make a mistake. The arrogant one may be young, but there is no doubt that he is one of Sidious's dark trainees, meaning that they are far from friends. If they are not friends, they're enemies. And an enemy can only ever be one of two things; the hunter, or the hunted. And he knows which one he is.

The boy seems to take the hint, he makes an annoyed grunt, before turning and leaving the cockpit. Good, he hates company anyway.

This will be his first mission since his failure. His master seems to have given him a second chance, one he does not intend to waste. The pain will always remain, but it can only make him stronger. Soon, no one will stand in his way, not even Sidious. He has trained his entire life to inherit the title of master, and no pain or failure will stop him. It's time to prove himself.

* * *

 **Greetings dear readers, I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter :D**

 **But before we move forward I would like clear some things up, I just want to give you all some background information on the universe this is set in, because I have changed some of the facts from cannon that I can't really explain in the story.**

 **First of all, Sidious apprenticed Dooku far earlier, because I'm pretty sure he was still a jedi when Anakin was five. But, typical of me, I forgot to inform you of this, but thankfully Irena Devereau (if that's not how your' username is spelled I'm so sorry) reminded me to say something :D**

 **Also Ashoka Tano and Anakin are closer in age. I would say that there is about three-fourish years between them in this story. Rather than the six year age gap that there is in the canon universe. So, Ahsoka was born a little earlier than she was in cannon.**

 **Oh and I also want to state that I based this version of Darth Maul off the one in the Phantom Menace. While I loved the way they portrayed him in the clone wars cartoon, I made the decision to disregard their rendition of him. This is mainly because he seemed a lot more silent and broody in the movies and that suits this story a lot better than the more talkative version of Maul in the cartoons.**

 **AND I LOVE MAUL SO MUCH I JUST HAD TO MAKE HIM PART OF THE STORY! I CAN'T WAIT TO WRITE MORE OF HIM EEEEEEEEEE!**

 **Ahem, Anyhoo I think that just about sums up everything I have to say for now, thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

"She sure does like her clothes" Ahsoka mutters by his side.

And Obi-Wan can't help but agree. It is beyond him why one woman would need to own an entire stores supply of dresses, along with enough accessories to adorn a queen. Although, now that he thinks about it, the owner actually _had_ been a queen once.

Servants rush between them, carrying everything from the most lavish of dresses too simple gowns and night ware. As far as he can make out, the seemingly rushed and disorganized movement of the servants is actually very calculated. Each and every thing has its own assigned place in its own specific suitcase, and each and every servant has their own specific job to carry out.

He had decided long ago that he will never understand women. Or at least those outside the Jedi order, and therefore concludes that this whole packing business is simply something that your average, non-force-sensitive female does on a regular basis. Not that the thought makes the chaos in front of him any less intimidating.

"At this rate, we'll be lucky to reach Raxus next year" Ahsoka moans, her voice gaining a somewhat sarcastic edge.

"Patience Ahsoka" He replies evenly. But despite his best efforts, a smile still forms on his face as he remembers the times he too felt the grip of impatience when waiting for hours on end in conference rooms as his master solved complicated political cases off world.

Just then a petite young brunette rounds the corner of the lavish apartment carrying you guessed it, more clothes. He watches as pair of servants intervene and relieve her of her silks, she offers them a few words of thanks, then turns to overlook the hectic packing-party taking place in her dining room.

Its then that Obi-Wan's eyes meet hers, and for a moment she looks surprised, but that quickly dissolves away into a warm smile. She walks over to them with the same royal grace he remembers her carrying years ago as Queen, her calm and practiced approach plays as a stark contrast to the chaos around them. As she gets closer he notices her plush cheeks are tinted with the soft red hue of a blush.

"Master Kenobi, I'm so sorry, I hadn't expected you for another hour. I hope you weren't kept waiting, I'm afraid my handmaidens are very busy and-"

"No, no, it's quite alright senator, we actually just arrived. The council is very eager to keep you safe. " he tempers softly, hoping to alleviate some if the senator's stress. It's quite obvious from her heavy eyes and pale complexion that she hasn't been getting much sleep.

Padme nods, still smiling at him apologetically. She looks distant. Contemplative even in the middle of their conversation. But Obi-Wan doesn't mind the gap between them, and in fact sees fit to allow the senator more time to think through whatever she is pondering.

"Actually" he starts after a brief, slightly uncomfortable silence "I think Ahsoka here could learn a lot about packing from your servants here" He says, offering his new apprentice a sly smile. Her packing abilities are far from competent, judging the way all of her clothes have been scrunched into the bottom of her duffel bag.

Ahsoka pales considerably at the prospect, and pierces him with a look that could easily kill someone less prepared. But alas, if he is going to be a teacher, then he is going to be a damn competent one. And insuring that his new Padawan elicits the same level of consideration for her belongings as he does is lesson number one. Not to mention that Ahsoka has been far too comfortable with this whole 'apprenticeship' ordeal; its time she felt some of what he has been going through.

"These ladies seem to know what they're doing, and I'm sure we can find one who will be more than happy to help" he states smugly, ignoring the pleading force signature Ahsoka emits.

Padme smiles at him thankfully before they part. She heads back towards the bedroom, and he all but drags his Padawan towards the least busy of the servants. But in spite of his best efforts, seeing Padme again after such a long time sends his mind backtracking towards memories created years ago; to his time on Naboo.

The Jedi were all but helpless to prevent the overly long blockade and inevitable occupation of Naboo as they couldn't officially intervene without the 'all clear' from the Republic senate. At the time, the trade federation was acting outside of the Republics official laws, so it was declared that neither they, nor the Naboo would receive the aid of the Jedi. While it had been argued that the Jedi technically operated as a separate entity of the government, the senate had insisted that since the trade federation would not be receiving aid from the Jedi, then neither would the Naboo despite the fact that they had been perfectly accommodating to the republics constitution.

Looking back on it now, it is clear to Obi-Wan that the trade federation, backed by corrupt officials and separatist sympathizers, had forced the vote in their favor; while they would not be getting any support from Jedi, (who would likely choose to defend Naboo's rights to freedom and thus become their enemy if they ever entered the conflict) neither would Naboo.

The senate had also refused to intervene, stating that it would not be 'economically viable' to enter into such a conflict, especially with the lofty standing army tax in place that made the construction of any sort of sizeable force almost impossible.

And so, everyone in the galaxy watched as Naboo burned. Well everyone except a Jedi named Qui-Jon Jinn and his apprentice, who decided to sneak past the droid command ships and help the people of Naboo earn their freedom. It hadn't been easy, and a lot of people had died in the process, but Obi-wan and his master eventually succeeded. They managed to scrape out a long fought victory against the army of battle droids occupying the planet and force the separatists into retreat.

He would be lying if he said that he came out of the conflict without any scars. The final battle had been devastating for both sides; a bloodbath. The only difference between the two had been that one side lost men and women with lives and families and hopes and dreams. People who could feel pain, people who had never even picked up a blaster before. While the other had lost cold, dead machines.

Despite the horrors of the war on Naboo, Obi-wan and Padme had become quite close during its course, and ever since Qui-Jon and he helped liberate the planet, they have been long-distance, but almost inseparable friends. Each knows that they can always turn to the other for help, because each have seen horrors that many would never dream of together. They understand each other on a deeper level because of it.

"It's just a little crinkled, nothing wrong with that!" Ahsoka protests loudly, suddenly snapping Obi-wan back into the real world.

He looks to see his new apprentice grimace unhappily as Padme's servant empties the contents of her bag unto a table and starts to carefully fold and repack everything.

"If you don't mind me saying miss, packing your belongings with care will not only keep them clean and undamaged, but allow you to pack more than if you were to throw them in any way" the servant chides as she works.

Ahsoka mutters something incomprehensible under her breath, and Obi-Wan allows himself to smirk. This 'apprenticeship' business isn't turning out as bad as he predicted. If all he has to do is make sure a grumbling teen cleans her belongings and keeps up with her studies, then all should run smoothly. Although, Jedi teens are also expected to go on potentially life-threatening missions and fly star fighters, and even Obi-Wan is still getting the hang of that.

"You should certainty listen to her my _young_ apprentice, the lady knows what she's talking about" he says confidently, causing his apprentices head to snap unto him like a turret.

Oh, if glares could kill, Ahsoka Tano would be the most competent assassin in the order. He points at her bag as if to say 'pay attention'. Ahsoka frowns and gives him a look that says 'You will pay for this', then returns her focus to the servant.

Obi-Wan feels an all too rare feeling of warmth fill him; sometimes it's good to lose yourself in the little things when the entire galaxy outside is threatening to fall into chaos over a potential war with the ever expanding separatist movement.

Especially so when he will be escorting one of his best friends into the proverbial Rancors den of the confederacy; Raxus Secondus. They are to engage in negotiations which he sure are going to fail no matter what either side proposes. Meaning his new apprentice and himself will be the only things standing between the small group of senators going on the mission and the entirety of the confederacy fleet.

He strokes his bread contemplatively at the thought, and a small frown finds its way onto his face, he can only hope that Ahsoka is ready for this. The council sent them on their mission minutes after they had met for the first time, so Obi-Wan has no idea what her skill level is. All he can do is hope the council knows what they are doing. That's all he can ever do.

* * *

"Error! No results found on subject: Evil Red and black Zabrak" B2 drones from the corner of the room.

Vader curses under his breath, and quickens his pacing. His hands are clasped firmly behind his back, an ungodly frown etched across his face. Who does this guy think he is? He was looking at him like he's some sort of baby for force sake! Darth Vader, dark apprentice to the Sith, is _NOT_ a baby! And that _sleezeball_ doesn't even think he is worthy to learn his name.

"Cataloging species: Evil Red and Black Zabrak"

Ignoring his droids rambling, Vader flops unto the floor as his frustration threatens to crush him. Whoever his new partner is, he isn't just any operative, that's for certain. Vader would probably be able sense the dark siders force signature from the other side of the planet if he weren't shielding his presence.

"This is unacceptable, B2. I thought it was only Sidious, Dooku and me. Now there is this sleemo here too"

B2 clanks over, and stands to attention in front of him.

"Dissatisfaction detected, moving to eliminate contenders"

Vaders eyes shoot up to B2's as the droid arms its writs blaster and starts to march towards the cockpit. Alarm bells immediately start blaring inside Vader head.

"Wait! Don't do that he'll cut you in half!" He exclaims loudly as he jumps to his feet.

He runs to the door and slides in front of B2 before the droid can leave. B2 awkwardly grinds to a halt in front of Vader, but still seems insistent on continuing once he is out of its way.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" He all but screams at his droid, who can only stare blankly back.

"Error! Deactivation inhibits effectiveness"

"Exactly, so stay here" Vader chides.

B2 remains motionless for a few moments, but as he continues to glare at it, it finally deactivates its wrist blaster and clanks away from the door. Vader can only heave a sigh of relief. Sometimes he thinks that that droid has absolutely no awareness of self-preservation.

He gives his droid a last threatening glare before turning to face the door himself. He has been pacing in this room for hours now; they must be near their destination. He should go out and check. The Zabrak might think he is hiding, which is certainly _not_ what he is doing. Just the thought of that stuck up bantha –brain thinking he's afraid of him is enough to call forth as much dark power as Darth Bane held himself into this very compartment.

"I'm leaving. _Stay here"_ He reiterates sternly to B2, who's only reply is a silent stare before opening the door and striding towards the cockpit.

He enters to find that are no lights on inside, but the molting embrace of an unknown star provides all the light needed to see. His mystery partner guides the ship's movements with ease. His face blank, his shoulders slaked. He doesn't tense when Vader enters. What, is he not scary enough for the _mighty Zabrak_? Nerf-herding sleemo.

"Where are we?" Vader demands, keeping his tone deep and unrelenting like he has seen Dooku do around his subordinates.

"Raxxus" The Zabrak replies callously, steering the ship in a wide arc. Within seconds a large planet of blue and green starts to gobble up the viewport. A shiver of surprise runs down his spine at the name.

Raxxus is the planet Dooku is using as a converging point for potential separatist allies in the coming war. It's like the Coruscant of the Confederacy, except the majority of the planet's surface consists of rolling plains and forests, not skyscrapers. It doesn't make any sense to him as to why they would be going here. According to what he can gather from Dooku, everything is running smoothly from the separatist end.

"What are we doing here?" He asks with a little less aggression as he slides into the co-pilots seat, gazing thoughtfully upon the large planet in front of them as he ponders his own question.

And it seems as though that's all he will be able to do as the Zabrak fails to give any sort of response. He hasn't even glanced Vader's way yet. Feeling a growing sensation of frustration mar his thoughts, he turns to face the Zabrak with pointed exasperation. That evil slime-bag _will_ tell him.

"Answer me" he barks, the sharp tone drawing his partner's attention. Soon enough an angry pair of bright yellow eyes find his.

"Don't think you have any say in what happens here, youngling" the Zabrak growls, baring his slightly pointed teeth like a feral beast.

"How am I to complete my mission if I don't even know what I'm doing?" he says as he clenches his fists in frustration. Force this is so unfair!

The Zabrak eases the ship into the atmosphere, the engines start to growl under the pressure. "It's my mission" he bites, keeping his eyes on the viewport.

His anger snaps like a dry twig, and suddenly any sense of composure is lost. His pitch rises to a roar as his face turns a murderous red. The engines scream, the ship jolts and rattles angrily. The viewport shows nothing but fire.

"No its not! Dooku sent _me_ to-"

"- assist me, in my mission" the Zabrak replies evenly, exerting an odd detachment that almost separates him from the boiling rage filling the cockpit.

He feels a Tsunami of rage and frustration so large hit him that his previous feelings are nothing but a trickle in comparison. ' _This fool thinks he can hijack my mission?!'_ He is so angry he can't even speak. This is his chance to prove himself, and how can he do that when this guy is trying to take ownership of the entire operation?

The fire from the entry dies away to a deep navy sky dotted with hundreds of tiny stars. Maul continues to angle the ship downwards towards a city sparkling in yellow and red, ignoring Vader very obviously seething beside him. He seriously considers cutting down the wretch where he sits. But if he did, would Sidious dislike him as much as Dooku?

The ship begins to lower unto a landing pad devoid of any light in the outskirts of the city. Maul switches everything off just as they land with a soft 'thump'.

"This isn't over" Vader growls, pointing a menacing finger at his cohort. Who silently stands up and brushes past him without so much as acknowledging his threat.

The door to the cockpit opens and soon Vader is alone, watching the door close with a frustrated huff. It seems as though this will be a mission of wills more than anything else. And if that's how the Zabrak wants to play then Vader will happily oblige. He takes one last deep breath, in an attempt to calm himself, then stands up.

He follows his 'friends' force signature to the ramp just in time to see him pull a hood over his horned head and leave the ship. It is almost as if the Zabrak is trying to ditch him and do the mission on his own. That's not going to happen. With an annoyed frown, Vader half trots, half runs to his cohort and matches his pace towards a rather plain looking building adjacent to the landing pad.

It's quiet here, away from the center of the city. It's obvious from the sparse surroundings that few if any speeders come this way even during the day.

"Are you going to tell me your name yet?" he asks again, but unsurprisingly, gets no reply.

They reach a simple door, the Zabrak punches in a long code into a small wall-mounted control panel. This planets nights are cold, his frost-breath puffs into the air beneath his nose before eventually fading into the still night surrounding them.

"If I tell you my name will you tell me yours?" he asks as his arms cross in front of his chest.

The door opens, and the Zabrak silently strides inside. Guess that a 'no'. Vader sighs and rolls his eyes, before lazily swinging through the door and into the dark room beyond. The lights blink on, revealing a large, pristine armory full of various weapons, gadgets and implements one could use to seriously threaten another beings existence in the galaxy.

But the Zabrak ignores it all, and instead picks up a small black bag in the back of the room. Pulling it over his shoulder and heading back towards Vader and the exit.

"The Republic has opened negotiations with the separatist movement. They wish to prevent a war" he growls with obvious distain as he heads back out into the landing pad. Vader quickly follows, matching the Zabraks quick pace once more.

"Darth Sidious gave them an express command to avoid any talks with the Republic, yet here we are"

The Zabrak turns to face Vader with a violent flurry of his cape, piercing him with molten yellow eyes that suddenly leave him feeling somewhat uneasy. For the first time he becomes acutely aware of the pure, unbridled _rage_ coursing through the Zabraks body. It reminds him of a rabid beast, hunting to kill and for no other reason.

For a moment, that rage pierces Vader with such strength it threatens to crush him.

"We will eliminate traitorous separatists first, then deal with the overly-idealistic Republicans before they can disrupt the Sith's rise to power any further" he spits, his fanged teeth giving his words a cruel, sharp edge.

The dark side is everywhere, cascading around the two apprentices like a hurricane. Vader embraces it; the black hole inside of him could swallow up any power he may encounter. Because the nothingness is his ally, and even the most devestating of devices can't destroy something that doesn't exist.

A detonator is shoved into his right hand, his fingers curl around the hilt automatically. Vader looks down at the detonator for a moment, before looking questioningly into the Zabraks amber eyes.

"Don't fail me" the he hisses, and suddenly all the power of the dark side stops as though it had never existed, and he walks away.


	9. Chapter 9

"Is that him?" Vader murmurs curiously, intently watching a Sinteen senator, who he presumes to be their target, stride confidently towards his ship on the open-air landing pad. The sleemo's late for work, yet he is taking his sweet time walking down that runway.

"Shut it" the Zabrak spits back.

Vader huffs, but has learned by now that questioning his counterpart is as useful as banging his head against a durasteel wall. So he keeps his mouth shut, and instead focuses the lenses of his binoculars on their target.

"Bec Lawise" he whispers to himself, finally putting a face to the name of the most infamously pacifistic senator on Raxxus. Honestly, it's beyond Vader why the man joined the separatists in the first place; it's kind of obvious that peace is the last thing the Confederacies mind.

He is short and has a big bulging head that looks so much like a brain it's uncanny. Pity he never seems to use that big head of his. For where has it gotten him? Here, with two bloodthirsty Sith apprentices planning to blow him to bits from about two blocks away.

Bec boards his ship, which slowly begins to hover up into the air. Sitting here, on top of a towering skyscraper, they will be sure to have an excellent view of what's about to go down. The Zabrak clicks his mouth impatiently.

"…Not yet" Vader says eagerly. Becs ship fly's away from the landing pad, why is he flying so damn slowly?

The cool morning air only worsens the spread of Goosebumps along his arms. This has got to be one of the most exciting things he has ever done! Not that he has much to compare it too; studying all day in the library on Serenno? Yawn.

"A little more…" Vader pines, wishing his words could speed up the ships lazy speed. For man late for work and about to die, Bec Lawise sure does seem to be relaxed, climbing calmly up towards a traffic lane.

The Zabrak hisses a growl and grabs Vader's binoculars, yanking them out of his hands.

"Hey!" Vader cries angrily. He lunges at the Zabrak, falling unto him and nearly knocking him over as he reaches for the binoculars. His 'friend' grunts and tries to shove him away, which is rather difficult because Vader is clawing at him like an enraged Nexu

"Give it back" He hisses with exasperation.

"Stop!" The Zabrak growls, grabbing Vader by the shoulder and shoving him off. He lands on his ass a few feet away, and a sharp bolt of pain shoots up his spine. Kriff! They're his binoculars, this is so unfair!

He gets up with a grunt but before he can run at him again, a sharp 'boom' roars in the distance. He snaps his head around to see a small yellow explosion ignite where Bec's once was. The dead metal carcass of his ship plummets towards the lower levels of the city.

Damn it, he wanted to see everything up close with _his_ binoculars. He marches up to the Zabrak and yanks them back while he's distracted with the explosion.

"What the _hell_?" Vader hisses, but the Zabrak doesn't respond. He just stares into the city, still as a stone gargoyle. The sirens of police and medical teams rushing to the scene can be heard even from here.

"Now, No one will dare challenge Lord Sidious's command" The Zabrak says ominously, completely ignoring the fact that Vader even said anything. Like he said earlier; may as well just bang his head against a wall.

He sighs loudly, and turns to watch the ensuing chaos with his counterpart. The traffic is being diverted now, and every second more and more sirens join in with the rest. He has to say that the cities reaction times are very fast, he's impressed. In mere minutes the entire sector is cordoned off. Nonetheless, the city guard shouldn't suspect anything other than a ship malfunction; they placed the explosives on the ships engines, so it should look like they overheated and exploded without any… tampering from independent sources.

But even if they did somehow suspect an assassination, they would never expect two tourists enjoying the view of the city from two blocks away. And even then if they _somehow_ managed to suss them out, they have the protective veil of Darth Sidious to fall behind. Because really, he is _everyone's_ boss, they just don't know it yet.

"Come" The Zabrak growls, turning from the scene and moving to leave. His long robes billow in the cool wind. Despite the anarchy a few miles away, it's oddly calm up here. How the Zabrak can remain as deadpan as a stone at all times is beyond Vader. Sometimes he wonders if he peels off that red skin will he find nothing but wires and machinery underneath.

For a few brief seconds, Vader continues to take in the chaos they caused, then he too turns to follow the Zabrak towards the maintenance corridor back into the main part of the building. There are more separatists to be dealt with, but it's unlikely that anymore will leave this universe with such flare. Bec was the face of the few separatist pacifists; his death will be an example. They rest will die quietly.

"What now?" He asks casually as the two of them trot down the clanking metal stairs in the dingy corridor. He would be lying if he said he wasn't excited to execute the next part of their mission, especially if it's anything like that.

"You will take Bec's place in the negotiations"

Vader stops mid-step, stilling stupidly like a confused idiot. The Zabrak either doesn't notice or doesn't care, because he pushes open the squeaking door at the bottom of the staircase and marches away. Does…. Does he honestly expect him, _Darth Vader_ to act as a politician?! Seriously?!

"WHAT?!" Vader shouts, finally coming out of his stupor and running down the rest of the stairs.

There are precious few things he will openly admit to being bad at, one of them is politics. Which, in Vader's opinion, is the most unnecessary, underhanded and completely _idiotic_ practice in the entire galaxy. All politicians do is lie and waste time. And being forced to act as one of those bumbling idiots without blowing his cover is the most idiotic things he has ever heard.

He bursts through the door and into a rather lavish hotel corridor the Zabrak is about half-way down. Several people have left their rooms and are looking at the crash-site from the long curving window occupying the entire outermost wall. Ignoring them all (and any social curtsey) he sprints towards that stupid dust-head whose horns must be stabbing into his brain and impeding all of his critical thinking abilities.

"Woah woah Woah, I am _not_ taking Bec's place" he gripes, laughing slightly as he speaks because this entire situation is so stupid it's comical. He grabs the Zabraks shoulder, halting his pace so they stand facing each other in the middle of the corridor. The Zabrak eyes him evenly, with that same, emotionless expression on his face.

"Are you incapable of completing your task?" He sneers.

"Of course not!" Vader bawls loudly, drawing the eye of some onlookers in the corridor.

"Excellent" The Zabrak drones. He looks between Vader and the onlookers, then silently turns and marches away again.

Vader is left standing dumb-struck once again, before his legs get moving and take him down the corridor towards his counterpart. Why is he the one who has to replace that stupid bug-brain they just blew up?

"Why the hell are we negotiating with them? Shouldn't we just 'deal' with them?" He insists, waving his hands frantically in front of him as he does so. By deal he means kill, of course. Not that he can phrase it any other way with so many people around them.

"The Republicans are not to be harmed" is the empty reply he receives, which does nothing to solve his current problem.

"If you know so much about the mission, then _you_ should be the one negotiating" he snaps.

"I will be commanding you though an earpiece" he replies as they reach the end of the corridor and enter an elevator down to wherever the hell the Zabrak is taking him.

"Oh, great. So I'm just the expendable dummy then" He rants, crossing his arms over his chest. If anything goes wrong, he will be in the middle of the fray while horns here will be safe and sound in some hideout on the other side of the city. Not that Vader doesn't like being in the middle of the fray, its actually his favourite place to be. But he thinks it would probably hinder his cause if he brought that up now.

"You will be meeting with both the Republicans and the Separatist traitors for a lunch party before official negations begin. You will use this time to explain that you have been appointed by Dooku to replace Bec Lawise. You will also analyse the Republicans for any weak links we can exploit both now and in the future" The Zabrak orders, completely ignoring him. Again.

It's quickly becoming clear that he has no choice on this, so he remains stubbornly silent instead. Purposefully avoiding the Zabraks eyes and pretending he is taking the elevator alone.

"If anything should go wrong" he continues "I will be nearby to clean up your mess"

That, was the wrong thing to say. Forgetting is snubbing policies, he snaps his head around to glare at the Zabrak.

"I _never_ fail" he growls, pointing a threatening finger towards the Zabrak, whose eyes narrow at the challenge.

"We'll see"

Force! For one with the personality of a kriffing rock the Zabrak sure knows how to grate on Vader's nerves.

The elevator dings and opens to the hotel entrance. Like those on the upper stories, the people down here are also looking through any available window facing the crash-site and murmuring quietly to one another.

The ground floor's dull-gold walls are embezzled with intricate carvings, the floor is a royal red and the central plaza is occupied by a stunning three level fountain. The entire place is huge, and if he weren't desperately trying to _deal_ with his Force awful 'partner' he would probably be sliding down those wooden bannisters by now.

The Zabrak heads for the reception desk, and Vader sulkily follows. Oblivious to his plight, a Twi'lek receptionist smiles brightly at them both.

"Reservations, Skywalker" He growls at the receptionist as she opens her mouth in greeting. Somewhat surprised, her smile melts, but she searches through the hotel's files anyway.

But Vader isn't paying attention to the receptionist, how can he, when _that_ name has been uttered? For what seems to be the millionth times this mission, vader's head snaps around to glare at the Zabraks infuriatingly distant one.

It's as if he doesn't even care that he just divulged Vader's _hidden kriffing name to the entire galaxy_. The name that has absolutely _nothing_ to do with him anymore. The name that means _NOTHING to him._

How could he?! Red hot fury burns in every muscle in his body. He jabs the Zabraks stupid stomach with his hand and gives him the most convincing death look he has probably ever given anyone in his life.

The Zabrak doesn't even look at him.

"We have your name on record, Mr Skywalker. You're in room 536, floor 26." The receptionist says pleasantly.

And there he goes again, marching away to the elevator without so much as even sparing Vader a glance or an explanation or _anything_. He curses under his breath and quickly follows. The Zabrak watches him coldly with hands clenched behind his back, Vader jumps into the elevator just as close completely.

"Really?!" He hisses once the elevator starts moving. He snorts an angry laugh and throws his hands in the air. "You just _had_ to use Skywalker didn't you?"

"Why? Does that name hold some sort of meaning to you?" The Zabrak snarls.

"No! But just becau-"

"If it means nothing, it won't cause any problems, will it?"

Force he hates this guy. You know what, he is worse than _Dooku. DOOKU!_

An angry silence permeates the air as the obligation for Vader to respond becomes greater and greater. His brain screams at him to say 'not a problem!', but he can't. Not after hearing it out loud. It leaves him feeling so desolate that he can't even bring himself to open his mouth. Images of the desert race through his head. Warm days, cold nights. Soft hands wiping sand from ragged knitwear. Sweet lullaby's and a kind smile.

The elevator opens with a ding.

"Will it?" He growls again.

Suddenly, a fiery pit of anger inside his stomach erupts like a volcano. Those… those false images will not control him! Those memories are _not_ his memories.

"Of course not!" He hisses, both desperate and furious at the same time. "Are you questioning my loyalty, Zabrak?"

"Don't give me reason to"

The both step into the hall, Vader tries to ignore the uneasy silence permeating between the two of them as they head towards room 536. He pulls the dark side closer, and uses it to clean his mind of the disease that is Skywalker's memories.

"Tell me your name" He growls at the Zabrak, forcing his mind in another direction.

The Zabrak opens the door to their room and heads inside, forcing Vader to follow him. A short corridor leads to a spacious living area just as elaborate and golden as the plaza on the ground floor. Large windows offer a view of the city, and a mahogany door leads to what must be the bedroom. Whoever is paying for their 'holiday' here hasn't spared any expense, it seems. He stares at the skyscrapers for a few moments, using their pretty visage to force any memories of his past life out of his mind.

Several black duffel bags have been left on the dining table. Gifts from their master, no doubt. The Zabrak takes one of them and unzips it, peering inside the mysterious bag as Vader glares it him. This enigma knows so much about him, he even knows Vader's birth name. Yet Vader knows nothing about him, this is unacceptable.

"What's your size?" The Zabrak asks as he rummages.

"Excuse me?"

""Your clothes, what size do you wear?"

"Forty" he grunts, crossing his hands over his chest and looking over the duffle bag with bemusement.

"…perfect" The Zabrak says, pulling out a long, size forty senatorial gown.

"No" Vader says instantly, drawing back towards the door.

Oh Force it's so disgusting and unfashionable and _purple_. He hates purple! That _thing_ is not a piece of clothing, it's a death sentence and he won't be caught dead in it.

"Yes" The Zabrak instructs, following him down the corridor, disgusting robes in hand. The arms puff out like semi-deflated balloons and a carpet-thick fabric hangs from the shoulders and the entire outfit screams 'I'm forty years old and have no life outside my job'.

"No _way"_

The Zabrak stops, and gives him a dismissive look.

"You have to dress like a senator"

"No I don't! I can just wear my tunic!" He exclaims.

"Senators don't wear tunics"

"I'm not even going to be a senator anyway; I'm Count Dooku's representative. Not some stuck up twad from the mid-rim." He rants frantically in the cramped corridor.

"You're wearing the robes"

"I am not"

"Yes"

"No"

" _yes"_

" _No_!"

For what must be the most surprising and breath-taking event today, the Zabrak finally shows some sort of emotion, breaking his stony gaze for a brief moment as he rolls his eyes. If the situation weren't so serious Vader would have whooped with joy.

"Just put it on" he nags.

A small smile creeps across Vader's face as an idea pops into his head.

"Only if you tell me your name"

The Zabrak stares at him silently for several moments, seemingly at an impasse as to what to do. But it's not all bad, at least the silence isn't met with him marching away again.

"We're on the same side, right?"

"You and I are not allies" He hisses back, his molten eyes narrowing.

"No, but we're working together on a mission-"

"A mission we will fail if you don't put on this robe!" He growls, stepping closer. Vader doesn't let the Zabrak intimidate him, in fact, his rage only strengthens his resolve.

"Exactly" He replies with a broad smile.

Now the Zabrak is the one looking confused. He raises an eyebrow at Vader and motions for him to put on the robes.

"And since I'm not putting on those robes until you tell me your name, I guess you're the one who will decide if this mission will fail or not"

The Zabraks eyes widen as the realisation that he fell into Vader's trap hits him. Silence is his only response, Vader leans against the door and waits for him to respond.

As the seconds tick by the Zabraks face turns from something akin to discomfort to angry to confused to angry again. He lets out a long growl and throws the Robes at Vader.

"Maul" He whispers before storming past Vader and into the hallway.

The door closes with an angry bang, and the smile on Vader's face can only widen. A victory at last. So Darth Maul is the other apprentice, the one who has tried every patient bone in his body for the past fourteen hours. The sweet scent of revenge helps to dampen the ever-present feeling of hopelessness Vader has found himself feeling when within a mile of that Zabrak.

He looks down at his robes, running his fingers through its thick fabric. He sighs, a deal is a deal, and he may hate the very air Maul breaths but that's no excuse to remiss on his promise. He sighs and heads to the bedroom, shrugging the overly elaborate violet robes over his shoulder.

The _least_ they could have done is given him a black set.

* * *

 **Hello all! I hope you enjoyed the banter between Vader and Maul! I'm sorry if Vader is too angsty and melodramatic right now but remember that he is just a teenager and still growing haha. And I also hope you're as excited as I am to get to the part where Vader and Padme meet :D.**

 **But before we get there I need to inform you all that I'm back at school, and in my final year. So if my output speed is slower or if my chapters are somewhat shorter then you know why. I am a big believer in quality over quantity and I'm not going to rush chapters out after study because I want to keep my upload speeds consistent. So sometimes you may not see much activity from me, but know that I have not and will not abandon either of my stories. Thank you for being patient, and of course, thank you for reading.**


	10. Chapter 10

The normally pleasant hum of a shuttle's engine gently thrumming against his boots does little to alleviate his growing stress. The uncomfortably small transport vessel is full of Separatist traitors, who he is certain will continue to ramble about such frivolous subjects such as 'the weather' for the _entire_ journey to the senate building. Part of him wonders if they are all part of some ridiculously abstract strategy aimed at getting him to commit suicide before his mission can even begin; death by babbling.

Vader sighs and crosses his arms in a weak attempt at hiding his obvious unease behind a veil of intimidation. He has spent most of his life surrounded by no more than two or three people at a time, and there are more people in this shuttle than he has talked to in nearly twelve years. Suffice to say it's a little uncomfortable.

"Ah, so this is Count Dooku's new representative?" A pale blue alien says with a smile as she looks him over, she saunters carelessly into his personal space. Into _his_ corner of the shuttle.

Vader grits his teeth. Then gives the leash to his anger a powerful yank for good measure, least he snap the aliens neck.

"Anakin Skywalker," he says and stiffly and extends a hand in greeting.

"Amita Fonti," the alien gurgles as she shakes his hand, her protruding eyes stick staunchly to his, "It's such a pity what happened to dear Bec; he was a good man"

Vader nods silently, the only sort of conversation skills Dooku ever bothered to teach him was how to take orders respectfully and how to give reports. Of course, he learned how to sarcastically berate people and complain all by himself. However he can't see any way to apply any of those skills here. Though the alien doesn't seem to mind his silence, she's too busy burrowing her beady eyes into his skull.

"I'm surprised Dooku managed to find a replacement so quickly, you would have to have already been on Raxus to arrive here on time," she continued.

Vader nods silently again, not quite sure how he is supposed to reply to her and be polite at the same time. His eyes dart around the small shuttle. Maybe if he listens in to how other people are talking he would know what to say to her?

Senator Fonti closes the distance between them, and suddenly her warm breath is tingling in his ear.

"Interesting that I've never heard of a senator Skywalker before" Amita snarls dangerously. Vaders' eyes instantly shoot down to hers, his eyes widening ever so slightly.

Has he already managed to blow his cover? Sithpit! Maybe he should murder the sneaky senator and pretend that she choked on some food or something.

"Anita, don't be so hard on the boy," a tall human woman with matching brown hair and eyes chuckles. She moves to place a hand on Anita's shoulder, as if she is holding her back from jumping on Vader and clawing him to bits right this very moment.

"Mina, Bonteri," the tall woman announces, a long elegant hand extends to grab a gentle, yet frim hold of his. The two shake hands, Vader isn't sure if he even wants to speak at this point; in case that witch Senator Fonti somehow manages to incriminate him for saying his name again.

The familiar thump of their shuttle landing floods Vader with relief, he has to get as far away from Anita's little mini-interrogation as he can, _right now_.

The large sliding doors running along both walls of the shuttle slide open and Vader is the first to jump out of the blasted thing and into the clear, fresh air beyond.

"Avoid Amita," mauls distinctly gravelly voice commands in his ear.

"You think?" he hisses back quietly just before the rest of the party join him, and desperately hopes nobody saw him talking to himself or they may think him a madman. Curse Maul for making him wear this uncomfortable ear piece anyway.

Suddenly he is surrounded by senators once again; they all clump together as a small group of droids approach from behind the long line of shadowed pillars decorating the walls of the senate building.

"Senators, this way," a battle droid squeaks.

Senator Bonteri, who has made her way to the front of their little group nods, and once she begins to follow after the droids, so do the rest of the senators.

They are lead down a long corridor that, while being fancy, is nothing compared to the elaborate wealth of Dooku's palace, and does little to distract him from the growing discomfort settling on his chest. He walks in silence at the edge of the group, berating himself for giving in and going along with maul's idiotic plan.

They eventually arrive at a large set of double doors, which the droids curtly open to reveal a large room carpeted in blue and bright with the light streaming through a balcony that occupies the entire far wall. Long azure curtains hang from the windows and an open bar is already offering light drinks to the awaiting Republican senators.

Vader lazily follows his group in, only to very quickly wake up when he notices a figure who looks to be in his early thirties, with a neatly clipped auburn beard and steely blue eyes, dressed head to toe in _Jedi_ robes. The sight freezes him in place, there is not supposed to be a Jedi here.

Just as he freezes up completely, the Jedi turns his head to look Vader square in the eye. He can't do anything but continue to stare back, a mixture of surprise and disgust ruminates in his stomach.

The blasted Jedi seems to take their unwanted eye contact as an invitation to initiate conversation, and before he knows it, he is been handed a drink by the fiend. Vader struggles hide his growing scowl, Jedi are disgusting; they spend their lives hiding their cruel deeds behind the veil of 'justice'. Pathetic.

"Hello," the Jedi greets pleasantly.

Vader swallows his disgust, and slowly opens his suddenly very dry mouth to answer.

"Greetings," he murmurs.

The Jedi nods with a smile that suddenly turns somewhat sympathetic. Vader nearly recoils away, _why_ is the Jedi giving him _that_ look?

"I'm so sorry to hear about Senator Lawise, I am told he was instrumental in initiating these negotiations. I would have loved to meet him," the Jedi continued.

Vader had forgotten about Bec, he grunts in acknowledgement, but thinks little more on the dead senator, his mind is screaming at him to kill the Jedi heretic where he stands. Even looking at him is a struggle, especially when his lightsaber could be activated and the Jedi dispensed with in mere seconds. Of course he can't do that though, not if he doesn't want to blow his cover. Force, he will actually have _to converse_ with the Jedi. This day is just getting better and better.

"Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi," the Jedi says after a few awkward moments of silence.

"Senator Skywalker," Vader replies begrudgingly, though he does make the immense effort of forcing a smile.

The small smile seems to work, because Kenobi's expression relaxes considerably. Though Vader isn't sure if he likes that or not; he was much happier making the Jedi as uncomfortable as possible.

"Forgive me senator, but I'm afraid I have not heard of you before, which sector do you represent?" he asks casually, taking a sip of what Vader notices to be water of all things. Trust the Jedi to pick kriffing _water_ when everyone else is choosing the most elaborate drink possible. No matter, Kenobi's 'selfless' charade wont fool Vader.

"I'm representing Count Dooku," he replies as he continues to force a smile, if he keeps holding this smile for much longer his expression may turn sinister.

"Ah, of course. It's a pity he couldn't make it," Kenobi acknowledges.

Vader is starting to become certain that he is allergic to small talk, because the urge to snap the Jedi's neck simply to stop him talking is so strong he can hardly contain it. He racks his head for an excuse to get away for Kenobi and just… go stand in a corner somewhere.

He swivels his head around the room, not caring if it appears rude or not. Too his immense disappointment, the room is very quickly filling up with even more people. Bodyguards, aids, servants and even the buildings chef have entered now; the only place of solace left seems to be the balcony.

"Have you been to Raxus before?" Kenobi inquires with such an obnoxiously polite tone Vader nearly scrunches his nose.

"No" He replies sharply before suddenly breaking away and making a mad dash for the balcony. He steps outside and quickly closes the doors behind him, then turns to face the city so no one will see him speak.

"There's a Jedi here," he hisses to Maul through the earpiece.

The line remains silent, and as the moments tick on Vader seriously starts to consider the possibility that the Jedi somehow managed to tamper with it. He paces down the length of the balcony, inevitably stopping at its end and placing a vexed hand on the bannister. He needs something to squeeze.

"That is impossible, master Sidious never mentioned any Jedi," Maul eventually snarls back.

"Maybe I'll kill him and let you see his corpse for yourself," Vader barks as the dark side urges him to sate a suddenly consuming blood lust.

"No, this must be a test," Maul rumbles thoughtfully across the line, "Continue with the mission as planned. Don't arouse any suspicious, especially those of the Jedi."

"If this is a test, then _maybe_ we're supposed to kill him,"

"We don't know that," Maul growls.

Vader can feel bile rising to his throat, the Jedi is practically right in front of him yet he _can't kill him_?! What sort of madness is this? He has been training to kill Jedi his whole life yet the first time he meets one he is supposed to play nice?! A deep growl emanates from his throat; he can feel a rant itching to be vented.

"The Jedi scum must be eliminated, he is a scourge upon-"

Suddenly the doors to the balcony swing open. Vader's hand jumps to his saber as he whips around to face the intruder.

His hand is however, is quick to fall from the hilt. Vader watches in dismay as possibly the smallest, most petite woman he has ever seen comes barging out unto the balcony like a rabid Nexu with a head as red as fire. She is so angry she doesn't even see him, and he quickly slinks behind a large, high-relief statue of a native animal to watch the proceedings.

Her long chocolate locks bounce against her back as she shakes her head in disgust. Long nails dig into the stone bannister with a conviction he has seen in few before. The door opens a few seconds later, senator Bonteri joins her on the balcony.

There is a long silence, in which both senators seem content to exist in each other's company and enjoy the view, while keeping to their own thoughts. Vader watches with a heightened interest; this conversation could be the key to finding a weakness within the Republican party.

"Padme, not everyone sees the Galaxy as Gunray does," Bonteri eventually soothes.

The woman, Padme, slowly turns to face Bonteri, allowing Vader get a glimpse of her face.

The sight makes him feel... very odd.

"That doesn't help when Gunray is practically leading the separatist movement," Padme quickly asserts.

Vader quickly realises that his eyes are wandering down her long white dress, and even though he knows he should, he doesn't stop himself. It hangs low from her neck, slowly tightening as it reaches her small waist, only to expand once more and flutter down to the ground. It's odd how well the dress fits her, she looks the image of perfection. Almost... angelic.

"There are plenty of people within the movement that don't want a war, you wouldn't be here if that weren't true," Bonteri replies.

Vader doesn't even hear Bonteris comment.

Force, this woman is very different than any other he has ever seen. What, what is it about her that's so….

Wait. He is here for a reason. What's the reason? The mission? Yes, right… right, the mission. What was it? Oh yes, find weaknesses within the Republicans…. Weakness, yes. Weakness… in the Republicans…

Padme's face turns sympathetic, "I hope your right, Mina," she says with a somewhat defeated voice.

She turns to look out over the city, her hair blows ever so slightly in the wind, and she leans further into the bannister, allowing him a spectacular view of her form. And for some unknown reason, his heart thumps a little harder in his chest.

"I hope so too," Bonteri admits, she places a consoling hand upon Padmes shoulder for a brief second, slips something into the younger senators grasp ( which Vader fails spectacularly at noticing ), then turns to leave. The door closes with a soft thud after her, leaving Padme alone on the balcony. For some reason that thought excites him immensely.

He watches her silently as she ponders something grave within her head. He can feel her radiant presence in the force slowly seeping through the entire airspace, and he sucks in every last drop of her presence with wide eyes and tickly skin. But then something starts to hurt. The tense pain drags his eyes away enough to notice that he has been grabbing the statue with a bit too much conviction. His hand is killing him. He curses quietly and quickly releases his grip. Rubbing his aching hand, he looks back up to see Padme leaving.

Her dress flutters around her as she walks towards the door, allowing him an idea of the legs hidden beneath. She opens the door, her stance becoming the image of regality as he strides through.

The pickling in his skin explodes, his heart rate rises. His legs scream for the release of a run. But something holds him back. He wants to, he shouldn't. There's no reason... Who is this woman?!

His heart sinks as the door closes, it's a desperately pathetic feeling he never wants to feel again. But he doesn't know what caused it, was… was it her? His stomach is doing flips, all the colour surrounding him feels somehow intensified. Never before, has he felt anything like _this_.

"What happened?" Maul growls expectantly over the earpiece.

Vader blinks his clouded eyes a few times.

"…What?"

"What do you mean what? I asked you what happened," Maul spat.

Vader eyes flick back and forth at nothing in particular as he tries to devise some sort of coherent sentence.

"I was interrupted by a couple of senators," he finally manages voice.

A loud sigh emanates from the other end

"Stop wasting time and get back to the mission. We don't have long to complete the mission," Maul cajoles, the buzz of the earpiece cuts off, signalling the end of their conversation. Though Vader's sure the Zabrak is still listening.

He coughs awkwardly and steps out from behind the statue. Then dusts himself down and fixes his tunic, allowing a frown to fall over his face. Whatever _that_ was, can't happen again, his mission is at stake.

He strides towards the balcony doors, but despite his best efforts, the muddled feelings of confusion and… something he can't even begin to describe follow like shadows behind.

With an unfavorable growl, he roughly pulls the doors open and heads back inside. Quickly scanning the room, whole lot more people have joined. Namely what seems to be the entirety of the trade federation's leaders. Including that sniveling idiot Gunray. After watching him shamelessly suck up to Dooku for just under a decade, Vader has lost all respect for the man, if he ever had any to begin with.

Senator Padme is right to hate him…

He curses himself silently for thinking of her, and intensifies his focus on the environment an attempt to forget about her. Wait. The Jedi, where is he? Vader does a double take of the room, and scans every visible head Sithpit, the blasted Jedi has vanished! Did he know who Vader was? Was he informing his cursed counsel right this moment? That thought alone is enough to wipe all of those new, odd emotions cleanly off his palette.

A small grunt escapes his lips, and he roughly powers through the crowd. A Jedi on the loose will be the least of his problems if his master finds out that the Jedi council have learned of his existence.

* * *

 **Hello all! Sorry again for my poor update speed, I'm REALLY busy at the moment with school. But hey, I eventually got it done :D.**

 **Heh heh heh. Enjoy your fluff while it lasts dear readers... heh heh heh. *Cue scary flash of lightning as I chuckle manically from the darkness***


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello everyone, and merry Christmas! I finally got some time to write, so I made this! I'm really over excited because its one a.m! Thank you all so much for your amazing comments, they really make my day to read them! It makes writing all the more worth it! Anyway, enough about me. On to the story!**

* * *

The Jedi's obnoxiously bright presence tethers down the long corridor. Vader hastily follows it, not quite sure what to expect, but certain that the Jedi is up to something he shouldn't. The murmurs of the mingling senators slowly dissipate as he draws further away. What is this blasted Jedi up to? And more importantly, how can he stop him?

"Security checkpoint ahead," Maul grumbles into his ear just as Vader turns a corner to see five lanky battle droids standing guard at its end. He quickly jumps back behind the corner with a muffled gasp.

"You could have told me earlier!" Vader hisses back. He peeps his head around the corner, to see the droids still standing with heir blasters lowered. Good, they didn't see him.

The Jedi's force signature is emanating brightly past the set of ornate doors at the end of the corridor. Vader frowns condescendingly; trust a Jedi to go sneaking about in another man's abode without permission.

Suddenly, a side door opens, and senator Bonteri strides casually out in plain view of the battle droids. She pulls out a slip from the pocket in her gown, and hands it to the approaching droid. Its skinny, beige head leans out as it examines the pass. After a few moments, the droid turns around and babbles to the others, who separate to allow her through.

He frowns in thought; that can't be a coincidence. Maul had said in his briefing that strictly no senators would be allowed to wander while the Republicans are here. So then why had the droids let her past? She must be up to something; perhaps the unwitting senator could lead him to that blasted Jedi.

Unfortunately, unlike the senator, Vader lacks a pass, and can't get past the droids. As much as it pains him to admit it, killing them all isn't a viable option; this is strictly a clandestine mission. No trails can lead back to him, no one can die. He groans inwardly, and then turns around to look for another option.

The corridor leads back to the hall, can't go that way. He looks at the walls and towards the ceiling; no vents to sneak into, just a bunch of overly fancy paintings. Force, what is he to do? He vaguely remembers watching a terrible kids show about Hutt smugglers when he was living on Tatooine. In it, the main characters snuck through a large military base (or was it a prison?) by activating a series of secret tunnels. They would push on slightly off coloured bricks, which in turn, would reveal the hidden passageways. Vader taps his chin. Whelp; it's not like he has any other options.

Mindlessly, he starts tapping the wall at random, hoping that he might stumble across something he shouldn't. To his disappointment, nothing happens. Better try the other wall. He starts to turn, but his foot catches on something. Kriff! His hands fly out for balance as he emits a stifled yelp. His heart jumps out of his chest as he sees a large (extremely fragile looking) vase fall to the ground in slow motion. He desperately catches it with the force in a knee-jerk reaction, before unceremoniously toppling unto the ground himself.

With a bated breath, he prays that no one heard him. As seconds pass into minutes, he finally allows himself to release a relieved breath; if anyone heard anything, they would have come for him by now. He gets up, and growls at the vase. Stupid thing, if only he could break it for causing him to act like such a youngling.

Although…

Suddenly, a fiendishly delightful idea springs to mind, maybe he could? Without a second thought he wraps his arms around the knee-height vase and shimmies it over to the corner, just out of sight of the droids.

He smiles to himself as a rush of deviance flows through him. At his command, the force wraps itself around the vase and he slings it at the far wall. It explodes with a loud clash, and bits of vase reign down unto the floor.

"Hey!" One of the droids yells. He hears the clanking of feet approaching the vase.

The droids crowd around the destruction opposite him. They stare down at the shards of vase on the floor, and argue amongst themselves about what may have happened. He quietly slips past them, and hurriedly makes his way to the door at the end of the corridor. Opening it ever so slightly and slipping inside without anyone the wiser.

The doors lead into a large square room. A deep purple-blue wallpaper darkens it significantly, and judging on how it's completely lacking in any sort of furniture, is accented on all sides by doors, and no lights are on, Vader can guess it's some sort of unused congregation hall. Aside from that, the most lacking thing in the room is the complete absence of either Jedi or senator, who are nowhere to be seen.

He closes his eyes and submerses himself fully in the force. The dark side hisses like an angry beast as he pulls it under his control, but eventually submits. The Jedi's presence is definitely close by, he can feel it burning him like the beacon of a searchlight viewed from too close.

"A terminal activated in the room three door down from your position," Maul hints.

Odd that an apparently abandoned part of the Separatist Senate building would have a single, tender terminal activated. Too odd. He smiles condescendingly; the Jedi won't get away from him that easily.

Vader turns and marches downt o the doo, and is then about to march straight in when he realises that would probably arouse suspicion. With a sigh, he backs away. No witnesses, clandestine mission, blah blah blah. Stupid Maul and his rules.

"I hate this," Vader mutters sulkily as he kneels down to the keyhole. (yes this place is so fancy it has actual wooden doors with actual keyholes)

"Stop complaining and complete the mission," Maul snaps back irritably.

He sighs loud enough for his hidden com unit to hear, fully aware how unreasonably embarrassing this entire exercise is. A real Sith breaks through and slaughters everyone, without a care for the consequences. He doesn't go sneaking around after Jedi wearing a bright purple kriffing senator's robe.

That thought in mind, Vader reluctantly spies through the keyhole. The first thing he realises is that his view of the situation is extremely limited, and he must move his head in order to shift the view in extremely narrow tunnel he has to work with. The second thing he notices is that everything being said inside is muffled by the stupid door.

One positive, however, is that he has found his missing Jedi. How does he know, you may ask? Well, the Jedi's large, white-robed ass is covering up his view of just about everything else in the room.

"Spited again," He grumbles to himself as he shimmies closer to the door in order to hear.

"-be a coincidence" Bonteri's muffled voice says vehemently.

The Jedi shifts unto his left leg, apparently pondering something.

"I agree; it's no secret that the Trade Federation is opposed senator Lawise's proposal down to the last letter. We can't simply accept his death as an accident without an investigation," The Jedi says.

Vader frowns, they came all the way out here to discuss Bec's death? Well… at least Kenobi isn't informing the council about him…

"And how will we do that? Democracy or not, the Raxus authorities will start nothing without consulting Dooku first," Bonteri counters swiftly.

There is a moment of silence as the Jedi shifts back unto his right leg and thinks. Force would he ever just get out of the way?

"We don't need to involve the authorities. Master Kenobi, if this was indeed the Trade Federations doing, then it would be impossible to expect an official investigation from the separatists. If we want to figure this out, we have to do it ourselves," a familiar voice says. Was that who he thought it was?

As if by some miracle, the Jedi finally moves out of his way and towards a circular table in the centre of the room, behind which stands the girl from earlier. Padme.

Instantly Vader's heart drops to his guts; the senator hangs around with Jedi. He scrunches up his nose at the thought. Why would someone so beautiful be conspiring with Jedi?

"I agree, if this is indeed a Trade Federation murder, we will see no fair trial from the authorities, we will have to fight for ourselves" Bonteri says as she places a pile of data-pads on the table. "And I've already gathered some clues to get us going," She says with a smile.

Vader's eyes narrow in on the data-pads, if they actually have any real leads, this mission is going to become a lot more complicated.

"See, master Kenobi, we can always count on Mina's help," Padme expresses with a cheery smile as she picks up a data-pad and starts skimming through it.

"Shipment details, guard rotations, important figures of congress, Mina it will take hours to get through all of this," Padme sighs with a solemn look on her face.

"I can have some of my people look into it, and I'll inform you both if we find anything,"

'My people'? What does _that_ mean? Vader ponders quietly.

"In the meantime, have either of you found or seen anything suspicious you could investigate further?" Mina asks as she looks between Padme and the Jedi.

"Actually, yes, I think we have," The Jedi announces as his eyes move to suddenly look straight through the keyhole, and at Vader. Their eyes look for several seconds before Kenobi looks away. His heart skips a beat, was that on purpose?! With a held breath, his hand instinctively reaches for his lightsaber. How likely would it be for him to look straight down Vader's eyes like that if he didn't know? Were his force shields adequate? Could the blasted Jedi sense him?!

As the seconds tick by and it becomes clear to Padme and Bonteri that Kenboi doesn't intend to elaborate, Bonteri nods and picks up her data pads.

"Thank-you both for meeting with me here, if you wish to speak privately again contact this number ," Bonteri slides a dataslip across the table, the Jedi picks it up and quickly hides it in his robes, "Stay safe," She bows deeply and then turns for the door, Padme walks beside her.

"No Bonteri, thank-you, without your help I don't think either master Kenobi or I would have anywhere to turn," her radiant smile distracts him just long enough for them to reach the door and start turning the knob.

It's the noise of the ancient door creaking that finally draws his attention. They're leaving through the door he is spying behind. He has to hide, right now! Vader desperately jumps behind the door as it opens, and begs whoever is listening that Bonteri won't try to open it out fully. Thankfully, she doesn't. Seemingly not used to having to open doors manually, the senator simply opens it enough for everyone to comfortable exit and abandons it.

He hears their footsteps wander towards the way he came, and waits until he hears the door close shut behind them to breathe. The Jedi mustn't have know he was there, right? Otherwise he would have done something. He takes another calming breath and refocuses on his surroundings. The dark hall now contains a long streak of light, which is emanating from the small room the Republican's had been speaking in. Vader peaks around the door, and looks for any cameras in the room. Suitably satisfied that he can't see any, he makes his way inside.

"The Jedi has become a threat," Maul's gravelly voice states.

"How did you figure that one out?" Vader asks sarcastically as he runs his fingers along the table. A small, baby-blue piece of cloth sits at the opposite end, sparking Vader's interest. He moves over to take a better look at it. It's no bigger than his hand, yet the small crinkles along its surface suggest something is hiding beneath its surface.

"I will deal with the data-pads, you ensure the Jedi and the senator find no incriminating evidence while continuing with your mission," Maul orders in his ear, though Vader isn't really listening to him.

He pinches a corner of the cloth with his fingers, and slowly lifts it. Underneath he spots a small pendant; a Japor snippet. Oddly enough, nobody has bothered to engrave it with any emblems, as is traditional. Even stranger though, is the appearance of a piece of wood only found on Tatooine, a piece of wood that people like to keep to ward off evil spirits or emotions, and entice good ones. What is it doing here? Vader picks it up and examines its smooth surface. He has never engraved a Japor snippet himself, but he often saw his mother doing it.

He had forgotten that she used to wear little Japor snippets around her neck, did she still? He frowns as he stares into the milky white surface of the pendant.

"Oh!" A voice exclaims. Vader jumps and darts his eyes up in surprise. Padme is standing at the doorway, staring at him. Her hand grips her heart and an expression of surprise paints her features. He grips the Snippet a little tighter.

"…..You're Senator Skywalker?" She asks slowly, unsure of herself.

"I- yes." He mumbles, suddenly feeling very exposed.

Neither seems to know what to say, because neither should be here, yet here they both are. Vader grinds his teeth together as he stares at the Snippet in his hand. He should kill the senator for finding him here; she could tell the Jedi and then he would be under investigation. It's the logical thing to do.

"Is this yours?" He asks grimly.

"Yes, it is. I lost it just after I landed on Raxxus, and have been looking everywhere for it," She says in a very composed voice. Perhaps it might have fooled him if he hadn't been here to see just what 'looking everywhere for it' meant.

"May I have it back, senator?" She continues in her dignified 'senator' voice. He snorts at her; two faced liar.

"How do I know you're not lying? You're not from Tatooine, why would you carry one of these?" he growls defensively.

Her mask drops ever so slightly as she looks to the Snippet in his hand, and back at him. Slowly, Padme rounds the table towards him, she stares thoughtfully at ground as she does so. Palpatine always reminds him to never trust anyone who works with Jedi, he can't start now just because of a pretty face. He wraps his hand in a protective fist around the snippet.

"I visited Tatooine once" Padme says softly, it seems her mask has dissolved away to reveal soft brown eyes underneath. "Naboo was being blockaded, my people were at the mercy of an unscrupulous enemy, I had to leave. I didn't want to; it was unfair that I could flee when so many couldn't. But I had to, for the good of my people. I had to reach Coruscant and inform the senate, with the Republics help; Naboo stood a chance against the Federation,"

Vader frowned, she better not be trying to convince him to give her the snippet back with some sob story. Force knows Sith laugh at such things.

"What does that have to do with a Japor snippit?" He asks condescendingly.

His tone doesn't phase Padme however, and she powers on with her story.

"Our ship was damaged by the Trade Federation when we made our escape, and were forced to land Tatooine. My friends and I landed in Mos Espa, and we eventually managed to find a small repair shop,"

Vaders heart quickened at the mention of his home town, which is idiotic. Darth Vader has no connections to Mos Espa. The name means nothing to him.

"Inside, I met a woman. She looked tired, and sad, but she had kind eyes. She took us to her home, and let us stay the night to avoid the harsh sandstorm raging outside. She didn't have much, but what she had, she shared with us. We had to stay longer than we would have liked because the owner of the junk shop was demanding a ridiculous amount of money to give us the parts we needed for our hyper drive,"

Vader suddenly found himself listening very intently to her story, his breath catching on every word.

"I stayed with her while a Jedi named Master Jinn and his Padawan devised a way to get the parts. They said it was too dangerous for me, and of course I disagreed but after a long argument, I ended up staying with the woman in her house until they returned. I told her about Naboo, and the blockade and how scared I was. She gave me that piece of Japor, and told me that people on Tatooine believe they bring good omens. She said that when I encountered a moment of good fortune, when I felt joy beyond all else, I should carve symbols of health and defence into it; she said they would help me to defend Naboo in the future. She even drew out the symbols for me before I left,"

Padme smiles as she speaks, her eyes lighting up in a way he had never seen before.

"I ended up carrying the Jappor snippet everywhere with me, because it reminds me that good can be found in even the most desolate places,"

Astonished, Vader finds himself hanging on her every word. Her story has awakened feeling within him he hasn't felt in years. Feelings void of hate.

"What was her name?" He asks softly.

Padme's eyes capture his in their endless chocolate reach. They twinkle like a Sith's never do.

"Schmi," she replies with equal softness.

His heart constricts at the name. Schmi, his mother's name. Suddenly, a tsunami of hate erupts from inside. It's so powerful he nearly falls to the floor. Padme notices the change in his demeanour without him having to whisper a word. He snarls at her empathy, and slams the Jappor snippet on the table.

"Senator?" Padme asks with obvious concern lacing her words.

It's all too much. She's singing in his ears. She's singing those damned nursery rhymes in his ears and they burn like acid! He is a Sith! A Sith! He shoves the girl out of his way, she yelps as he knocks her over the table. He doesn't even hear her. Without a word he barges out.

Every muscle tightens so much so that they sting with every step. He can feel her arms lifting him up into the air. He can feel the rush of his stomach as he fly's in her arms. Make her stop, make her stop singing! He is out of the dark hall now. Battle droids screech in his ears. He thunders past them.

The dark side groans around him, screeching like the engine of a giant machine. The droids shoot at him, but nothing can hurt him, _nothing_ _ **.**_ With a feral growl he lifts his hand into the air, his fingers skewed into an inhuman claw. The droids rise with his hand, and with a single, violent thrust, they explode against the far wall. Not looking back even once he continues his march down the halls, past the pathetic senators and their frolicking and outside.

Maul is screaming in his ear. He rips out the hidden com and crushes it with his boot. A Sith takes orders from no one. A Sith feels nothing but hate. And he _hates_ this! He runs to the edge of the landing platform, stopping just before he flies off the edge.

"Senator?" Padme calls after him.

His fists clench, as do his eyes as he looks out onto the horizon. _That name is meaningless_.

 _All you know is hate. All you know is Serenno_.

He hears her stop behind him, but he doesn't bother to face her. Instead, he focuses on the wind blowing against his face.

"I'm sorry," she admits softly.

Sorry? She's sorry?! How can she be?! She can't know what he has done! How can she be sorry for him when she doesn't even know him?

"So am I," He finally replies.


	12. Chapter 12

The small hut is full of little trinkets and interesting oddities. A worn cloth of criss-cross pattern covers a plain wooden table. Stones of different sizes and textures rest in a simple ceramic bowl at its centre. Pipes that jingle at the slightest touch hang from the ceiling. The room is small, yet bursting with so much life. It makes her feel safer somehow, because for some reason, it feels as if a natural warmth exudes from these sandy walls. She pulls her cloak closer as the kind looking woman enters the room, a bowl of seeds in her hand.

"Don't worry, sweet. I'm sure your friends are fine," the woman named Schmi says with a smile, handing Padme the bowl.

Padme smiles and takes the bowl, though inside she's torn. It's obvious that this woman doesn't own much; she doesn't want to take anything more from her. Yet She doesn't want to seem rude or impolite, something a Queen should never be, in disguise or not. End the end, she resorts to a compromise; take the bowl, but eat no more than one seed.

She picks up a seed and pops it in her mouth. It's softer than she expected, and tastes slightly sour. Something beeps in the other room and Schmi leaves to tend to it, leaving Padme alone. This planet feels innately dangerous to her, and that sick feeling she's had ever since the blockade won't go away. She wonders if her nieces Ryoo and Pooja are ok. She hasn't seen them in what feels like months. The thought of her family sends a sharp spike of anger down her chest; the trade federation are monsters, forcing such young children to endure a military blockade. Why are they doing this?

The chimes closest to the door clink gently together, bringing Padme back to the present, in this little hut. She plays with the loose tethers of her peasant disguise, and looks around the room again. But she finds herself feeling no better, because this world she is sitting in is poisoned with poverty. It makes her sick to think that such a kind woman is forced to be a slave, and must live in such poor conditions. She breaths sharply out of her nose. Everywhere she goes, people are suffering. Why? Greed. Greed punishes the kind. Greed rewards the cruel.

Greed ignores the impoverished and takes what it doesn't need. Why can't the galaxy see that greed is slowly tearing it apart, limb from limb? Padme frowns as a new wave of determination washes over her; she may be fourteen, but that won't stop her from marching to Coruscant and doing everything in her power to secure aid for Naboo. Those corrupt leaders of the federation won't get away with this. She sits back into her seat, and starts to mull over her speech for the senate. She'll have to start with the logistics; how many are dead, and how many will die if Naboo doesn't receive aid. Then she'll show how the Republic has ample resources to help her people, and implore the senate to listen to her. They will listen to her, they have to. Right?

She puts her hands on the table and rests her head upon them. Oh, who is she kidding? The Republic won't help. Deep down she knows it. If they wanted to intervene they would have. This speech, the war, it's all so emotionally exhausting. Sometimes it feels like all the good in this galaxy has been drained away by corrupt politicians and businessmen. Leaving behind nothing but vultures who will attack the innocent for no other reason than to make a quick few credits.

The chimes sing softly by the door, Padme watches them sway gently. She sighs, a deep sadness resonates within her; this galaxy is one big joke. Tiredly, her lost eyes wander along the walls, and land on the small wooden frames decorating them. Frames built by under-paid workers, no doubt. She looks at the old and tarnished shelves; the shelves of a slave who has nothing because her master has already taken everything of value. She stares at a bare spot on wall, empathising with its emptiness. It's only then that she notices a small blue scribble near the floor. That shouldn't be there. She learns forward a bit, to try to get a better look. Soon, she realises it's more than a scribble; it's a drawing. A tiny, blue space ship has been scrawled onto the wall, judging by its rough lines and crude design; it was probably drawn by a child. A small face smiles from inside the cockpit.

Even after staring at it for minutes, Padme can't seem to pull her eyes away. It's so innocent, so devoid of any sort of political influence or agenda. It's so simple, and she hasn't seen anything like it in so long. Even in the beautiful palace of Naboo, her world is filled with nothing but advisors, agendas and speeches. Her every waking moment is occupied with politics and debates. Yet here, surrounded by squalor, she sees a drawing filled with pure bliss. Sure, it's nothing like the antique paintings that line the palace's walls. But for some reason, that small, smiling, face in the cockpit awakens more inspiration within her than any commissioned masterpiece ever did.

Without realising, Padme finds herself smiling back at the stick figure, and wonders if the little child who drew it ever did end up finding his spaceship.

"Padme?"

A hand lands on her shoulder, and presses against it tightly. The roar of speeders whizzing by the landing pad thunders in her ears, a gush of cold air blows against her face. He's gone.

"Padme, what happened?" Obi-Wan asks, his hand moving to turn her towards him. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Obi-Wan, thank you," She replies absently.

"Someone destroyed the guard droids; did you see who it was?" He insists, his silver eyes jumping between hers in a flurry of energy.

Padme simply looks back at him. Yes, she knows who it was.

"This is important. If you know anything, please tell me. Whoever did this could lead us Bec's assassins," Kenobi implores.

She is acutely aware of the snippet in her hand as memories of Schmi and the blue spaceship flash through her mind.

"Was it Senator Skywalker?" Kenobi asks under his breath.

Padme closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath.

"No, I don't know who it was,"

Little light reaches the ground beneath Raxus' towering buildings. The bit that does is unwanted, for all it illuminates is grime and rust. Vader stomps down another nameless alley, scarcely avoiding the puddle of gloopy, brown vomit as he passes. His hands reflexively clench and unclench at his sides. He is pathetic, an utter embarrassment! To think that something as simple as a name could cause him such vulnerability is unthinkable!

Nothing burns like the stinging feeling of hot yellow energy surging through your irises; the pain is so concentrated that the corners of his eyes become raw and bloodshot. The sensation only serves to heighten his anger. With an unholy roar he violently kicks over a nearby bin, before picking it up again with the force and slamming it against the dishevelled metal wall opposite him. It bursts open and plastic jumps into the air, while rotten bits of food and force knows what falls to the floor.

He turns from the mess, his breathing is harsh, and his teeth grind together so tightly they hurt. What a fool he is! Darth Vader, Sith apprentice, does _not_ care for names, no matter who's they may be. That stupid girl and her stupid story are so utterly pathetic that he has cause to go back to the senate building and cut her down where she stands for even daring to speak of such cowardly tales in his presence!

A soft thud sounds behind him, and his eyebrows knit together. Mauls unmistakeably dark force signature reaches into the small alleyway and quickly starts to suffocate it. Vader breaths out a sharp breath. The false apprentice is another problem that needs to be solved. Maul's very existence behoves the fact that his masters do not consider him a true Sith. For if they did, they would only need one apprentice, him.

"Fool," Maul condones.

The muffled sound of footsteps signals his approach. If that minuscule fool even dares to challenge him, he's dead. This is _his_ mission, not Maul's. Perhaps the true test taking place here is one to determine which apprentice is the strongest. Maul's hand lands on Vader's shoulder, and instantly he swipes around to knock it off.

"Don't touch me!" He yells, feeling the dark side greedily gorge on his rage.

Maul is knocked back a step at the strength of Vader's swipe, but he quickly recovers. He bares his pointed teeth at the younger apprentice, a menacing scorn betraying his frustration.

"Petulant child!" Maul retorts angrily, and moves to grab Vader by the collar.

Quickly, he sidesteps Mauls grasp, and grabs him by the shoulder. With an animalistic growl he shoves Maul back into the toppled rubbish bin. Maul loses his footing at the unexpected turn of events and ends up falling unto the rubbish.

"I am not a child!" Vader rages back, pointing a menacing finger at the furious Zabrak.

Maul roars and charges at Vader head first. He tackles the younger apprentice with all his might while grabbing him by the waist and slamming him into the wall behind. Vader grunts on impact, and before he can respond Maul has him cornered. The fierce looking Zabrak holds Vader's arms against the wall, and leaves him no room to struggle.

The two lock eyes. Each is as yellow and bloodshot as the other, each as full of contempt. Mauls hot breath beats against Vader's face at a break-neck pace. The Zabrak glares at him, as if daring him to try to escape his hold.

"Sidious will hear of this," Maul finally utters, before releasing Vader and stepping away.

Vader grunts as he is released, but doesn't pursue the Zabrak. He needs his strength to complete the mission and prove himself to Sidious. Maul continues to glare at Vader from a few paces away. That feral mongrel is just waiting for him to attack. Vader fixes his tunic, and steps away from the wall. Maul's glowing eyes follow every step.

"What?" Vader barks angrily at him; the stupid Zabrak came and said what he needed to. If he stays here much longer Vader is sure he'll snap and draw his blade.

"Fix your mistakes, before I have to," Maul replies threateningly.

Then the Zabrak draws his hood and with the aid of the force, jumps several stories. Within seconds any trace of his presence is gone; Vader can neither sense him through the force or by physical means. He looks towards the sky. The only things occupying the space above are the thick black wires hanging between the buildings. One day, that Zabrak will get what he deserves, one day he will relish gutting Maul. One day. But now, he must concentrate on other matters. Vader looks down to the ground thoughtfully; it's paramount that he returns to the senate immediately to cover his tracks. Those destroyed battle droids need to be handled.

Inside, he can feel the familiar call of the void, its embrace is at first somewhat startling. It quickly drains him of any weak emotions. Any trace thoughts of Schmi or Padme are sucked away into the darkness, leaving his mind clear and free to ponder higher thoughts. Ambition and hatred take residence in their wake, and soon Vader finds himself embracing the void back. His eyes mays sting, but the pain is good. It gives him strength. He turns and briskly walks down the corridor, an ugly frown on his face. That Zabrak won't win. He is destined to be the most powerful Sith to ever exist. How could he lose?

The stolen speeder comes to a quick halt a block away from the senate building. This part of the city is much nicer; the sun reaches the streets, and beautiful brown trees line every street. The roads are littered with leaves, upon which varying species of middle-class separatists amble about at a relaxed pace. Everyone, except Vader of course, who marches down the street, pushing people out of his way if he has to, though most seem to find the sense within them to keep their distance. He doesn't care that he draws their eyes, walking fast helps him think. And right now he really needs to think his way out of this hole he's found himself in.

The spires of the senate peek over even the tallest of buildings to watch his approach. Vader locks eyes with them, grandeur scares him no more; the richest of buildings hide the weakest of characters just the same as a crumpling huts does. He takes a final turn to find himself at the base of the gigantic senate building. A pair of battle droids approach, but he brandishes his false pass and marches past. The senate building rounds a large open courtyard that is closed off to the street outside. The paved expanse is occupied by small battalions of battle droids and a large number of workmen.

"Good day senator!" A cheery protocol droid exclaims with a thick core accent and a jolly wave.

Vader looks its direction to see that it's standing at the helm of one of many transport speeders which are bringing people up to their respective floors of the senate building.

"May I ask which level interests you today?" the droid continues rather loudly, further worsening Vader's mood.

He looks around the landing pad one last time, and seeing as here doesn't appear to be any other way for a simple senator like him to possibly reach a higher floor, he begrudgingly steps onto the transport. The droids arms jig excitedly as he steps aboard.

"Top level," he growls impatiently.

If he were in a position to use his force abilities he could scale the building in the time it takes for the droid to detach from the ground and hover into the air. He drums his fingers against the railing, and blows out a puff of frustrated air at the droid.

"Top level it is! We'll be there before you know it, sir!" The droid exclaims confidently. He doubts it.

The familiar arches decorating the top level of the senate building greet him on the landing pad. Everyone else it seems is inside. A battle droid runs over to him seconds after he steps off the transport. It stops a few steps away from him, and raises its hand, signalling for him to stop.

"Halt! There has been an attack on the senate building, no one may enter," the droid orders.

"Attack? What do you mean attack?" Vader snaps back. Are they _seriously_ branding the incident with the droids earlier as an attack?

"Someone destroyed a battalion of battle droids protecting the senators. TV-23 thinks there's an assassin in the building," The battle droids explains, seemingly forgetting all pretence of formality and switching to a much more casual tone. Dooku's right, Vader thinks, battle droids are really stupid.

"An assassin? Do they have any security recordings of the incident?" Vader asks hesitantly. If they do happen to have recordings, this is going to become a living nightmare. What will master Sidious think of him?

"Uh, I don't know, I was outside the whole time," The battle droid replies, scratching its head.

He sighs harshly, great. He'll have to get inside and try to find out who knows what about the attack himself, especially that Jedi Kenobi.

"Who's in charge of the investigation?" he asks, hoping he will find somewhere to start.

"TV-23," The battle droid replies instantly.

"Can you take me to him, I think I might have something interesting to tell him," Vader asks quickly, as he comes up with a plan in his head on the go.

"TV-23 is interested in anyone who has information! Roger, roger!" The battle droid says with vigour, before turning a leading Vader inside the building. Damn, battle droids are really, really, really stupid. How in the name of the force does Dooku expect to fight trained republic soldiers with these stupid things? He shakes his head at his own question, who cares? All that matters is that he stays in his master's good books, what they do doesn't really concern him at all. The only important thing in his mind is completing the mission before Maul finds a way to one-up him.

The battle droid leads Vader past the congregation hall he was in earlier and down a series of long corridors until they eventually arrive at an old, previously unused room, which is in the process of being turned into a makeshift command centre. Inside, a large strategy table displays the layout of the senate building in a shade of light blue. The walls are lined with old desks and dressers, all of which are covered in white, semi-transparent plastic sheets. Battle droids pass to and fro, carrying crates and command modules about the room, and an air of urgency permeates through the walls.

A T-series tactical droid stands in front of the strategy table, its arms clamped neatly behind its back, as if it were a solid mountain, ignorant to the storm surrounding it. It turns the minute Vader enters, to stare at him with shimmering white eyes.

"Sir, This senator says he has information regarding the assassin in the building!" The battle droid accompanying him exclaims excitedly.

"I don't recognise this senator," The tactical droid replies swiftly and dismissively.

The battle droid looks between Vader and the tactical droid hesitantly, as if it might do something stupid, like throw him out. And if he gets thrown out he'll fail his mission, which definitely isn't going to happen!

"Senator Skywalker, I was just appointed yesterday as Count Dooku's representative," Vader says with a forced smile. He extends his hand towards the tactical droid's in greeting, but the droid only looks at his hand and then back to his eyes, forcing him to lower his unshaken hand somewhat awkwardly. He has to repress the strong urge to slam the droid against the ground with the force, today really isn't his day.

"What information do you possess?" The droid asks.

"Well, I think I saw someone running down that corridor those droids were on when I went outside to get a breath of fresh air. Maybe if you, um, let me see the recordings, I could tell you if I recognise him?" He explains hastily as he makes his lie up on the spot.

The tactical droid stares at him silently for a few moments, which serve to make Vader start to feel somewhat nervous.

"That's impossible," the tactical droid barks, "Someone broke the security camera with a large ornamental vase approximately twenty minutes before the assault took place, we have no recordings from that hallway," The tactical says condescendingly, and straightens up in an attempt to reach Vader's height. Oh, well who cares then? Vader thinks to himself as he sighs in relief.

"Very well, I will take my leave then," He says and turns for the door.

"Wait," The tactical droid orders, causing Vader to stop and look back at it somewhat impatiently; there are other issues he needs to address; like find out what that blasted Jedi and his senator friend are doing.

"You said you saw someone running towards that corridor, you will give me a description of the suspect immediately,"

"Uh, he was wearing a hood, I didn't see his face," he mumbles in response.

"What was his race, and approximate height?" a battle droid asks from nearby, a data pad and pen at the ready.

"I don't know, I couldn't see with the… hood,"

"And his height?" The droid continues eagerly.

"Five foot seven," he says quickly as he edges towards the door.

"Ok so that's a five foot seven, unknown male, with an unknown appearance, unknown motives, wearing a nondescript hood, heading down corridor A-05 at um what time?" the battle droid asks politely as it writes.

"Probably sometime after midday, I didn't really check the time…"

"…at an unknown time, probably after midday. Thank you for aiding the Confederacy of Independent System's planetary police force, your help is very much appreciated!" The battle droid says happily.

The tactical droid shakes its head and motions for a battle droid to escort him out.

"No one may leave until we have found the assassin, you will remain with eh other senators in the hall of freedom," The tactical droid orders as he is brought to the door.

Vader nods in acceptance as he leaves. At least Padme will be, in all likelihood, in that hall. Maybe he can figure out what exactly she saw and who she told. To be honest, he's surprised he hasn't been arrested already, because she must have at the very least suspected that he had something to do with the droids. Though if he were to be realistic with himself, she would have to be an idiot to not put two and two together and realise that their destruction was his fault.

The battle droid leads him down the same set of corridors, and back into the large blue hall. Now that everyone is being forced to stay inside, it's even more crowded that before. He looks back at the exit reluctantly and maybe just a little bit anxiously, though he would never admit it to anyone. After the battle droid deposits him in the hall, its spins on its heels and marches straight back out into the comfortable freedom of emptiness outside, and suddenly Vader finds himself envying a battle droid. A kriffing battle droid.

* * *

 **HAPPY AFTER CHRISTMAS I HOPE YOU'RE HAVING A LOVELY HOLIDAY! Guess who has a whole two weeks of no school like every other student in the world, yeah, me. (who woulda guessed it) SO I HAS LOTS OF TIME TO WRITE YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY.**


	13. Chapter 13

How these mindless senators can manage to hold a conversation about force knows what for this length of time has and will continue to baffle him until the day he dies. How long have they been trapped in this blasted 'hall of freedom' for anyway? An hour? Surely there is only so much on can say about a 'rampaging assassin' who you have literally know knowledge about, and never seen before.

Frustrated and anxious, Vader roughly pushes through the crowd to the bar. He has already checked the balcony and the other side of the room for the missing Jedi, so if he isn't by the bar – and force help whoever happens to be standing next to him is that's true- then he mustn't be in the hall at all.

Finally, the crowd of crowing senators breaks to reveal the deep blue mineral surface of the bar. The bartender, a somewhat overweight Rodian, is occupied by a very angry couple at the other end of the counter, so Vader finds himself unattended and free to sift through the faces around him in search of the Jedi.

Using his height to his advantage, he looks past those imminently in front of him to search the faces a little further away. At the end of the room, he spots Nute and his lapdogs being chaperoned out by a squad of battle droids, probably for questioning. He grimaces; no Jedi, and no senator either. He quickly looks through the crowd again, only to yet again find no faces of value, causing his guts to twist into painful knots. If the Jedi figures out it was he who destroyed those droids, he will surely fail his mission. What if Padmé has already told him? Blast it why isn't he here?!

"Ah, senator Skywalker, I was beginning to wonder if you would ever reappear at all," A posh core voice says.

His eyes dart to his side to find a pair of grey ones scrutinising his every move. It's the Jedi, how did he miss him?! He quickly adjusts himself in an attempt to hide the shock that is no doubt hovering over his features.

"Jedi," Vader replies with a condemning tone.

Kenobi's eyes linger on his for a few moments, before any pretence of distrust melts from the Jedi's face to reveal a generous smile.

"Care for a drink?" he asks kindly, as he signals to the bartender.

He cant figure out why the Jedi is being so nice; if the senator told him what she probably knows, then he would have every right to condemn him to the authorities. Unless, he doesn't know. But that would mean that Padmé didn't slip his secret, which is a highly unlikely turn of events. Kenobi seems to notice the gears grinding in Vader's head, because his eyes narrow curiously at the Sith.

Finally, the bartender manages to break free from the angry couple. He stomps away, waving them off with a sharp thrust of his arm. Then he stops at Kenobi, and leans his hands on the table.

"I'll have a glass of water please, and my friend here will have a..." Kenobi looks to Vader, as if to gesture to him to finish the sentence. What a pathetic show of false comradely, one he wont partake in. Vader crosses his arms over his chest and glares at the Jedi, remaining silent.

"...ah, he'll have your finest Alderaani wine," Kenobi finishes awkwardly. The sight of the Jedi's seeming embarrassment is enough to make Vader smile, on the inside of course. The bartenders eyes shift between Kenobi and Vader's curiously as he pours them their drinks.

Vader discretely looks around for Padmé, but he can't seem to find the senator anywhere. Is she hiding just as the Jedi had been? No, she couldn't be, Kenobi must have been using the force to hide is presence, the forceless senator could do no such thing.

The bartender places both the Jedi's water and his fancy looking wine unto the counter. Kenobi quickly retrieves his drink, then looks to Vader once again. Those thoughtful eyes are telling; the Jedi must at the very least suspect his involvement.

"Have you heard of this, rampaging assassin everyone is talking about? He's been causing quite a bit of commotion, if I do say so myself," The words slide off Kenobi's tongue like butter, but Vader isn't impressed. Kenobi is obviously probing for information. The Jedi can babble all he wants, he will receive no reward in return.

"Yes, I have heard of him,"

A short silence simmers between the two, as Kenobi analysis him again. Whatever the Jedi is planning, it wont help him. Vader's eyes narrow in silent retort to the Jedi's nosey attitude, causing Kenobi to plaster another false smile over is face.

"I do hope you didn't run into him while you were away," Kenobi says simply, though Vader can see the hidden threat behind the words.

"I could say the same for you," Vader hisses back.

Kenobi frowns at Vader's remark, and soon the two men are shooting daggers at one another in the crowded hall. If only they were alone, if only he could-

"Obi-Wan, there you are," Padmé interrupts suddenly.

Surprised, Vader blinks quizzically at her presence. He was so caught up with the Jedi that he mustn't have felt her approach. Padmé smiles at him, before her eyes drift back to Kenobi, who is still scrutinising his every move. Padmé places a hand on his arm, and in doing so draws his attention away from Vader.

"I thought I'd never find you in this crowd, have you seen the view from the balcony? Let me tell you, its amazing," Padmé waffles in a cheery, innocent tone as she leads the puzzled Jedi away. Vader watches them leave, equally as confused as Kenobi. He finds himself torn as to whether he should pursue them or not. After a few moments however, his question is answered for him as he watches Padmé's graceful form disappear into the crowd.

* * *

Shimmering golden rays seep through the elaborate windows of the hall. The last few breaths of the dyeing sun will soon diminish, yet the senators have received no news from the authorities about the progress –or lack thereof- of the investigation. People are growing restless.

Inside the room designated as the disabled toilet, a certain Sith apprentice works furiously on a rather outdated communications device. He curses himself for not updating the thing since he built it. After placing the tattered red wire into its misshapen port once more, Vader again presses the red activator occupying the front of the device, to no avail.

He grunts in frustration and bangs the communicator against the rim of the sink. Force forsake him for never updating his equipment! Having lost all hope, he stabs the activator over and over again in quick succession with his finger.

The words -no service- light up on the display panel, and Vader shakes his head in disgust. He is in the most important building on Raxus, how can there be no service? Finally seeing the futility of his ways, Vader stuffs the comm unit into his robes and marches out of the toilet. A group of ancient looking human senators give him dirty looks as he slams the door to the disabled toilet shut.

He ignores them, and parks himself at the wall beside the toilets. He has been imprisoned in this blasted hall _all day_! And what information has he found? None! Nothing! He literally never saw Padmé or her Jedi friend after they _went to look at the view,_ whatever that means, ans that's obviously not what they were doing because he went to the balcony and checked! He growls as an overwhelming feeling of self-loathing threatens to overpower him. Maul has probably already secured himself the title of 'best apprentice' by now. With his scary voice, and threatening glare, and pointy teeth, and- wait is that Padmé?

A very tired looking senator of the same shape and build as Padmé meanders through the crowd and towards the ladies toilets. Vader's eyes light up as he catches a glimpse of her face; that _is_ Padmé! Her sweeping white dress disappears into the toilets, and Vader does a quick check with the force to check if she's alone in there, she is! Suddenly feeling full of energy, he edges towards the bathroom. The eyes of the old senators stick to his back as he does so, he can feel their distaste radiating towards him.

Perhaps now he will finally get his questions answered. He steps through the door, and locks it with the force behind him; it wouldn't do to have a nosey traitor walk in on them. The ladies bathroom is much the same as the disabled one; fancy salmon tiles, unnecessarily expensive shimmering sinks, and decorated with vases of white flowers. He spots the senator the minute he enters, she's standing by the sink at the far end of the room, staring longingly into the mirror. Her arms leaning against the counter. He takes a step forward, and she jumps, her head snapping around to stare at him with wide eyes.

"Senator?" Padmé voices warily, she takes several cautious steps further into the room. Vader can feel a strong sense of unease emminating from her. It instantly puts him on edge, does she have something to hide?

"What did you tell Kenobi?" He growls, taking a strong step forward. Her eyes quickly change in expression, morphing into something akin to relief, if he were to guess.

"I didn't tell him anything." She says, hints of confusion still peppering her voice.

He can tell she isn't lying through the force, yet she still feels anxious. He cant fathom as to why. The confusion makes him angry, her presence makes his muscles tingle. Does she feel the same way, is that why she is afraid of him?

"Then why are you afraid?" he threatens.

"Well, men don't usually barge into the ladies toilets and threaten the occupants," she replies, still standing awkwardly in the corner, as far away from him as she can get.

"Who have you told?" He continues, not allowing her to trick him by diverting the conversation. Master Sidious says he should always be careful of that when around senators.

Padmé frowns at him, seemingly having regained her confidence. She moves forward, until she's right beside him. It makes him uneasy. Her delicate face stares up at his.

"You shouldn't be in here," she says harshly. Vader suppresses a scoff, who is this mere senator to tell a Sith where he can and cant go?

"Why not?"

She gives him an exasperated look, and shakes her head.

"Because its the _ladies toilets,_ "

"So? Just because it's the ladies toilets doesn't mean men are banned from going inside," he replies condescendingly.

"Yes it does!" She says with a bemused, and slightly surprised tone.

"But that so impractical!"

Padmé shakes her head at him, as if she cant believe what she's hearing.

"Please tell me you have been to a public restroom before,"

"No, and what does that have to do with anything?" He barks in frustration.

She waves her hands in the air and moves around him, towards the door.

"Hey! Wait, you didn't answer my question!" he shouts after her.

Padmé looks back at him one more time, her eyes clouded with bemusement. Vader crosses his arms over his chest and frowns at her, she wont be leaving until he gets his answers.

"I haven't said anything, to anyone," she replies in a serious tone.

He doesn't believe her, but the force tells him that she's speaking the truth. Though he can't understand how, because there's no reason not to tell anyone. Seeing his confusion, Padmé's features lose some of their gusto, and she sighs. Slowly, she walks back to him, her heals clicking softly on the ground as she moves. This time, when her eyes meet his, they're thoughtful.

"But I know you're more than just a senator,"

The words cause his eyes to widen, even though he had suspected as much. Hearing the conformation out loud still disturbed him.

"Is that why you're afraid of me?" he asks quietly, not really sure if he wants to hear the answer.

Padmé looks at him with a grave expression marred across her features, through the force, he can feel that she is torn. Whatever reason she has for protecting him wont keep him safe forever, because he can feel the uncertainty in her decision laced though every breath she takes.

She opens her mouth to answer, when a loud bang and muffled screams cut her off. A heavy rumbling sound breaks through the walls, a spike of fear and confusion stabs through the force.

"What the-?"

"Get down!" Padmé screams, pulling him to the floor as another explosion blasts from the hall outside. The walls shake dangerously and bits of rubble fall to the floor. While calling on his training to keep him calm, Vader closes his eyes and focuses on using the force to expand his senses throughout the building. The overwhelming sensation of panic floods the force with such intensity that he can't get find who or what is causing this mayhem.

His eyes snap open to see the senator crouching beside him, her hands clenching his shoulders. They're close, very close. He can feel her breathing against his neck. The thought distracts him for a split second, before he remembers what's happening.

"Come on!" He yells as another blast in the distance bounds into the bathroom.

Grabbing her hand, Vader jumps to his feet, and jogs to the door, pulling a disoriented Padmé along with him. The door snaps open to reveal the epicentre of the explosion. The sight is so grave, that even the Sith apprentice blanches and looks away. There's blood, and it's everywhere. Body-parts litter the floor. The blue carpet is covered in derbies. Vader cant help but stare in shock at the sight before him. Nobody survived.

"We have to leave, now!" Padmé screams. She suddenly starts to pull Vader along with her. Her sharp tugging pulls him to his senses, and he realises her panic wasn't because of the gore.

At the opposite end of the room, by the door, a raging fire cackles menacingly at them. Its spreading quickly, some of the curtains have already caught fire.

"There's no other way out," Padmé exclaims between pants. She lets go of his hand and looks desperately around the room.

Its starting to become difficult to breath. His chest suddenly starts to burn as the thick smoke poisons his nose, the sensation makes him start to cough, and soon he cant stop coughing. In a meek attempt to protect himself, he wraps an arm around his mouth. Smoke billows along the ceiling. The blue walls turn red as the fire burns brightly.

"The balcony!" Padmé cries with relief.

She grabs him again and yanks him towards the balcony. They burst through the doors, and into the fresh air outside. Sirens wail in the distance, and the smoke from the building has already climbed high into the air. His eyes dart back towards the doors, where inside he can see the fire quickly gobbling up the room. They wont be safe here much longer.

"We have to get out of here," Padmé says at his side as her eyes search for a means of escape.

"No kidding," Vader grumbles back as he looks towards the walls of the senate building.

There! He spots a pipe a few feet across from the balcony. If he could get over there, they could scale the wall down to a lower level. He looks back at Padmé, who is looking over the railing.

"Senator! What are you doing?!" Padmé yells in his ear as he picks her up, hauls her over his shoulder and jumps unto the railing. He groans internally at her screeching. Dooku was right, women do nothing but complain.

He gathers the dark side around him, and uses it to propel him forward with heightened speed and agility. He crashes against the pipe, and gabs at it desperately with his free hand.

"Yaaaah!" she screams.

"Be quiet,"

He wraps his legs around the pipe and starts to shimmy down it. If he were lucky, this pipe would lead them down a good few floors before it stopped. Another explosion sounds in the distance, followed by a wave of panic in the force. Padmé's fingers dig into his back as she clings unto him for dear life.

With steady determination, he inches down the pole until a nearby window becomes close enough to vault into. He looks down the rest of the pipe to see if there's anywhere better to go below, but there doesn't appear to be.

"M'lady," He grunts as he pulls her closer to the window and slings her through. She lands with a thump inside, her force signature screams in anger and humiliation. It makes him smirk, but on the inside of course.

With a graceful leap, he follows after her. He lands unto the polished floor inside, to find himself in an expensive looking corridor. Pictures of important people he doesn't care to remember line the opposite wall. And just like in the rooms above, every door is wooden, and hangs on hinges.

"I could have climbed down that pole myself," Padmé grumbles at him as she fixes her dress.

"Come on, we have to keep moving," he replies, ignoring her comment and heading down the corridor.

"Do you even know where we're going?" Padmé calls after him.

Truthfully, he has no idea where he 's going, but is he going to tell her that? Of course not.

"Come on," He growls.

The clicks of her shoes trotting after him confirm her compliance. Having finished with Padmé, Vader again uses the force to scan the area for any life forms. He senses nothing but the stench of fear radiating throughout the building. He breaths it in, enjoying it for what its worth. At least he has their fear, it will give him more strength to defend himself. Perhaps that will make up for his lack of agility in these force awful senator robes.

"We have to go back," Padmé pines as they walk.

Vader rolls his eyes, feeling her determined ones burrowing into the back of his skull.

"No, we don't," he hisses. _He_ has to get out of this building before it collapses and contact his master. Though it wouldn't really do any harm to make sure the senator made it out in one piece too.

"My friends are still up there, we can't just leave them!" Padmé exclaims.

A spike of anger stabs at his chest. He spins around to face her, and she stops abruptly.

"You mean your Jedi friends?" He growls, spitting out the word Jedi as if it were burning him.

Padmé's angry glare turns into one of bemusement.

"You may not like the Republic, but that doesn't mean you have to hate the Jedi. They are impartial peacekeepers. They would help anyone who needed it, including a planet aligned with the CIS," she explains.

Vader nearly burst out laughing at her little speech. Impartial peacekeepers? What galaxy is she living in?

"Don't play the fool senator," Vader scoffs, before turning and marching on again.

Her heels don't click after him.

"Obi-Wan isn't the only person still up there, some people may still be alive and in need of our help," Padmé states with determination.

In his head, he groans loudly. A feeling of deep frustration resonates throughout his body. _Why_ cant they just leave and let the authorities handle it? Yet despite his grievances, he stops and turn to look back at her. A thoroughly sullen expression on his face. Some part of him doesn't want to leave her here on her own, because she will surely die without his help.

"When we find a control room, you can try to contact your friends there," he finally grumbles, before turning and marching off again.

After a few moments, the heels begin to click behind him again, and somewhere deep down, a feeling of relief washes over him.


	14. Chapter 14

**I got another chapter finished! *ironic yippee from PM***

 **This chapter was SO fun to write, because I'm finally at a stage where I can write scenes with Padme and Vader together! Hope you like this chapter as much as I liked to write it! Thanks for reading!**

* * *

The broken camera sits idly on her lap, a string of wires hang from its side like guts and trail to the floor. Ahsoka sighs for the what must be the millionth time, and shoves a clump of weird, green looking pieces of technology out of her way as she rummages through the camera.

Why did her master make her try to fix this stupid camera? Didn't he know that she is terrible with fixing things? The camera sparks violently at her, and she drops it with a fright. Force! Ahoska collapses dramatically in her chair. Well... at least she did a good job stealing it from those mindless battle droids.

Its so boring down in the foundations of the building. No one ever comes here, and she's been stuck down in this grimy old place for hours! Not to mention the entire floor smells like old person, and not a single piece of equipment is even from this century.

She presses her boots against the ground, and pushes away to swivel around. The darkened room goes by in a blur. She sinks further into the chair, and looks begrudgingly down at the sparking camera. Whoever the assassin is, they sure did a good job at breaking that camera up.

She sighs and performs a rather sarcastic impression of her master.

"It's an important job apprentice! You'll be keeping an eye on things for me from a distance! I'm going to go and do all the fun stuff now, bye!" She says with mock cheer.

Why can't she be out in the field with Obi-Wan? She's just as good with a lightsaber as him, she even beat him twice while they were sparring! And sure, she might still need to work a bit on her force powers, but she can still handle herself! Bored out of her mind, Ahsoka groans. If only something interesting would happen.

Just as the thought enters her mind, it seems fate decides to answer her call. A deep rumbling sounds from the distance. Causing her to quickly forget her gripes with her master. She sits up in her chair, confused. As she looks around the room, she hears another deep rumbling, but this one is accompanied by muted tremors too.

Ahsoka leaps to her feet, her hands dart for her lightsabers, but she doesn't ignite them. Her senses burst to life with a sudden rush of adrenaline. She jumps to the door, and carefully opens it. The hallway outside, surprisingly, is empty. She cautiously steps into the abandoned corridor, keeping to the walls in case something spots her.

What the hell is happening? A distinct sense of urgency screams through the force, yet her surroundings are as silent and lifeless as a graveyard.

In an instant a devastatingly loud bang pierces her ears. She is knocked off her feet as a gut-wrenching explosion rips through the hallway. The sight of a door at the far end of the hall being blasted off its hinges is the last thing she sees before all of the lights die.

She opens her eyes to silence once more. A weak shiver runs through the walls. Bits of dust fall over her, and she wipes them off her face as she gets up. Breathing heavily, she ignites a lightsaber, she can't sense any intruder with the force, so instead she illuminates her wrist-comm with her green bade and fumbles with the controls.

"Master? Master!" She shouts hoarsely into the comm, but no one replies.

Desperately out of breath and growing in worry, Ahsoka leans against the wall. Where is Obi-Wan? Is he ok? What about Padmé? Who set those explosions? Was it the assassin? She starts to feel light headed. She has to find Obi-Wan!

Ahoska stumbles forward, but is overcome with a coughing fit and is forced to stop. She closes her eyes, and tries to steady her breathing. Her legs are shaking, and a cold sweat runs through her. Focus, she thinks. She calls on the force, and tries to use its steady presence to calm herself, like her master taught her.

Taking one last deep breath, she opens her eyes, and exhales slowly. At the same slow pace, she straightens her back, and raises her lightsaber. She can do this. The lightsaber shines its green light on the damaged walls around her. She walks forward at a steady pace, her hands gripping the wall in case another explosion hits.

"Ahsoka?" The weak voice of her master sounds over the comm.

She jumps upon hearing his voice, and instantly moves her comm to her mouth. Relief floods her senses, he's alive!

"Master! Are you ok? What's happening?!"

"I-I'm not sure. Ashoka listen to me, we have to regroup immediately, come to floor 86, I'm trapped. Don't use the elevators, and be careful, I think someone is trying to disrupt the peace talks and I think they're a-"

Another explosion sounds close by, causing her comm to fizzle out. The ground shakes dangerously under her feet. She clings desperately to the wall, and manages to stay upright.

"Master?" Ashoka yells helplessly into the comm.

He's trapped? Is he injured? Why would someone want to disrupt the peace talks? Ashoka shakes her head as a barrage of stray thoughts crash against her. She's a Jedi, she has to focus. She calls on the force once more, and tries to clear her mind.

Focus. Focus. Obi-Wan is injured, and he needs her help. She needs to find a way to get to floor 86, and she cant use the elevators. OK, that's not so hard. She can do this. She starts walking again, and makes it to the end of the hallway. She steps over the blasted door and into the room beyond.

The inside is completely black, splintered wood is littered all over the floor, and the ceiling has caved in. She looks up into the darkness above, unfortunately the light of her lightsaber doesn't make it that far. She squints through the darkness, but in the end its hopeless to see what's above. A small part of her is wary of charging head-first into the unknown above.

She furrows her brow in determination; her master needs her. Shrugging off the last of her hesitation, she crouches, and blindly force-jumps up a level, then lands awkwardly unto the unsteady floor above. She gets up quickly and swings her lightsaber around in case there's any enemies lurking in the shadows. The shimmering green blade cuts at nothing but air. She slowly stands, the place seems to be clear.

Ahsoka sighs in relief, and starts walking again. She appears to be in another hallway, one whose lights have also died in the explosion. Well, at least that's one floor down, only 85 more to go, she thinks as she wanders around.

She looks at her comm again, and tries to contact Padmé.

"Hello? Padmé?" She calls, but receives no reply.

She takes another deep breath, and pushes any absent worries away, deciding instead to focus on getting to Obi-Wan. He'll know what to do.

* * *

Finally, he's found something he can plug his communicator into. Vader crouches beside the large control panel and unhinges the side, revealing a plethora of ports and dials inside. He rummages around for his communicator in his robes, and pulls it out.

"Why can't we just use my comm?" Padmé asks as she pulls out a small circular comm unit from her pocket.

Upon seeing her press the activator, he jumps up and quickly encloses his hand around the device. She gives him a bemused, distrusting look.

"Don't," he says hastily, "We don't know who's listening,"

At that, he drops back down to the exposed ports, pulls the disjointed red wire out of his communicator and plugs it in. To his immense relief, the comm buzzes to life, it seems it only needed a little extra power.

"Won't they be able to listen into... that too?" She asks as she examines his bent device. "How old is that thing?"

"It's encrypted, and can't be traced. The channel is completely secure. I made sure, and it will break through any comm dampeners anyone might be using,"

Padmé raises an eyebrow at him as he presses the activator.

"Encrypted code received, securing connection," B2's monotone voice says over the comm.

"Who's that?" Padmé asks warily.

"Someone is setting off explosions in the building. What's happening?" Vader asks, ignoring Padmé's question.

"Error! Insufficient information available. Unknown cause or motive," B2 drones.

"Then find out! And power up the ship,"

"Roger roger, powering up the ship. Warning, threat level red. Building stability is minimal,"

"I know, where can you land?"

"Scanning building. Closest landing platform to targets location: disabled. Scanning. Second-closest landing platform to targets location: disabled. Scanning..."

Vader stands up, figuring it could take a while for his robot to find a suitable get-away location for them. Its then that he notices Padmé glaring at him.

"When can I contact my friends?" she asks.

He sighs, and looks down at the comm.

"Fifth-closest landing platform to targets location: Disabled. Scanning..."

"Whenever B2 is finished," Vader replies dryly. He crosses his arms over his chest, and hopes his communicator doesn't break.

The two of the listen to B2's stream of thoughts as the minutes tick by. No matter how hard he tires, his eyes keep wandering back over to the mysterious senator, only to have him realise what he's doing and pull them away again. She's leaning against one of the control units, her hands resting idly against its pristine surface. Every time he sneaks a peak, he finds something new in her appearal.

The first time he looks over, he sees a single freckle on her cheek. It's a deep brow colour, and for reasons he can't place, it adds a certain unique appeal to her face. A spark of anxiety runs through his chest, and he quickly looks away again.

He looks to the opposite wall, his fingers drumming against his forearm. The droning of B2's voice lulls him into a state of docile pondering. Though the shifting of the senator inevitably draws his eyes back to her once more.

This time he notices the soft rose colour of her lipstick. The colour is so light one wouldn't even be able to tell that she's wearing any if they didn't look closely. Her lips are a pleasant shape; full and rounded neatly, a sneaking part of him wondered what it would be like to touch those lips. Vader's eyes widen at the thought, what is he thinking?! He snaps his eyes away to glare at the ground as if it were guilty of some foul crime.

But just as the sun rises every morning, so too does Vader's bored mind find its way back to Padme. He tightens his fingers. She is not worth thinking about; she's only a senator. That force forsaken feeling is back again! The same on he felt by the balcony. What is this feeling and why has he never learnt of it before?! Both frustrated and angry, he resorts to alleviate the increasing pressure within him to look at her by taking a single, quick glance.

He takes the risk to peak, but as he looks over to see her eyes catch his. A rush of heat explodes in his face, his eyes dart down to his boots. Time seems to slow to a halt as he awaits her answer.

"You know, you saved my life, but I don't even know your first name," She says evenly.

"It's ah-" He is about to say Darth Vader, but manages to catch himself in time, "Anakin," he replies sheepishly, feeling very uncomfortable using a name he has been forced to forget all these years.

Silence protrudes them once more. He wants to say something, not for any practical reason, because there isn't anything productive to discuss. Yet still, The urge to say something to her bears heavily on his chest.

"Scanning. Nineteenth-closest landing pad to targets location: Active" He perks up at the droids statement. Both heads turn to the communicator at his feet. "Evaluating threats: minimal. Ideal location acquired. Evaluating flight trajectory. Route established."

"Where do we need to go?" Vader asks B2 over the comm.

"Processing. Ideal route acquired. Uploading details,"

Vader bends down and looks to the screen of his communicator. A clear route from the abandoned control room to the landing pad B2 has found is displayed. Vader frowns at the distance between them and their location.

"Have we got our way out?" She asks as she looks over his shoulder at the communicator.

"Yes," he replies simply as he memorizes the route, not trusting his finicky communicator to live the journey to the landing pad.

"Be ready to pick pick us up the minute we arrive," Vader says before deactivating the device.

"Wait, I need to contact my friends, remember?" Padmé chimes over his shoulder.

He growls to himself, and silently reactivates the communicator. If Dooku saw him now, bowing to the whims of a senator he should have killed hours ago, he would be disowned for sure.

"Thank you," Padmé says sincerely as she takes the communicator from him and starts to put in her friends code. Vader gets to his feet and crosses his arms, then watches the senators every move intently.

"Hello? Obi-Wan?"

The comm's dead fizzling is the only reply she receives. She tries again, determination streaked over her features. Vader dares to hope that the Jedi's dead. Maybe then she would come to her senses and realize that the Jedi order is a sham. She might even join the separatists, how cool would that be?

"Obi-Wan," She asks again, her voice wavering.

A thin smile cuts like a dagger across his face. If the Jedi's not dead then he's in trouble. Meaning he'll be easy pickings for Vader if they encounter him. Padmé spins around to face him, clear worry set in her eyes.

"We have to go back up there, People will die if we don't do anything."

The smile falls from Vader's face, to be replaced with a grimace.

"I don't know if you've noticed, M'lady, but out journey is long enough as it is without pointless detours," He hisses impatiently.

Padmé crosses her arms over her chest in perfect mimicry of him. Her face set with the same frustration marring his own.

"So you intend to just leave the countless number of people in need of our help here to die? Because you're too lazy to go help them, is that it?" She growls.

"I'm being practical. We need to leave before this entire building comes down on our heads," he marches for the door, determined not to be pushed around by some stupid senator.

"Oh, so you're just a coward them"

He stops instantly in his tracks, every muscle tensing at the accusation.

"What did you say?" He threatens.

Padme takes several steps forward, he can feel her looking at him.

"Well, it seems to me that your too scared to put you life on the line for the people who need our help,"

A deep grumble erupts from his throat. He can't believe what he is hearing.

"I am not a coward," he growls slowly between gritted teeth.

"If you're not a coward, you'll stay," She replies abruptly. She's using him, he can tell she's just saying this to use him and damn her for trying! Revolted and enraged, he jumps around and fired an accusing finger her way.

"Your pathetic, warped existence of reality holds no baring on me. Perhaps it is you who is the coward, if you can't accept the fact the your Jedi friend is going to die and there's nothing you can do about it!"

Padme's eyes widen at the harshness of her words. Good, now she knows how he feels. Who is this tiny lady to threaten the sincerity of his courage?!

"Look, I'm sorry Anakin, I didn't mean to upset you. I'm just afraid for the people still trapped in here. And even if you don't want to help them then surely you want to find out what's happening, are you not curious about why the senate was bombed during the meetings?"

He can't tell if she's still trying to trick him. Nothing she is saying could be genuine, humans are nothing but greed and anger and those who aren't outrightly so are just better at hiding it. His eyes flick between hers thoughtfully. Though she is right in the fact that he wants to find out who is behind this, because they just made him fail his mission. How can he find a weakness within the Republican's if they're all dead? Maybe if he returned to his masters with the perpetrator in hands they might be more lenient?

Furthermore, one Republican is still very much alive, and standing right in front of him, so he may still be able to gleam some valuable information from her. Not to mention she might unwittingly lead him to those data pads senator Bonteri had earlier...

"Fine," he concedes with a harsh bark, "Lets go,"

* * *

Padmé watches the tall figure disappear behind the sliding blast doors. The immediacy of his mood swings shocking her to her core. This was the second time now that she had unintentionally caused him to experience some sort of blind rage and charge from her presence.

The sight of his distorted features fixed in a position of clear hatred felt as though they had been burned into her retinas. His ice blue eyes felt so cold, like frostbite biting at her toes. Like a dangerous storm sweeping across the land. The thought disturbs her. She finds herself releasing a breath she hadn't realised she was holding.

Something feels innately wrong about the mysterious Skywalker, but she can't figure out why. One second he is sheepishly looking at her out of the corner of his eye, the next, he's roaring at her like a full blown killer. It doesn't make any sense.

Padmé sighs, and shakes her head of him. Obi-Wan needs her help, as does Ashoka and whoever else is trapped in this building. It's her duty to try her best to save as many people as possible.

Looking down, she notices that in his rage, Anakin forgot his communicator. She bends down and grasps the flimsy red wire connecting the device to the control panel. With a sharp tug, she manages to free the stubborn wire from its port. Standing, she looks the communicator over again. Perhaps this could help her understand who this Anakin Skywalker truly is. He shares the same surname as Schmi, who had told her her son's name was Anakin. She also mentioned that he had been taken from her a long time ago.

Could this be the same Anakin Skywalker? His face certainly bares a resemblance to Schmi's. She clutches the pendant hanging from her neck, she would have to find out, for Schmi's sake. With that in mind, she hides the communicator within her purse and enters the hall. Anakin has already cleared about half of its length, and seems in no way inclined to slow down and wait for her.

She picks up her dress at the waist and trots quickly after him. If one thing about this whole ordeal is certain, Anakin Skywalker is certainly no ordinary politician, or else he would have shown the common courtesy to wait for her.


	15. Chapter 15

**Hellooo, thank you for all the awesome reviews on my last post! It's great to see such positive feedback. Sorry for not uploading in a while, am extremely busy, and I'm only going to get busier as my mock exams approach. But I'll endure. And eventually, I will write the next chapter.**

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Looks like the lights are out down here too. Ahsoka is beginning to think that the electricity in this entire part of the building has been cut. The nameless corridor stretches out for what feels like an eternity ahead, without a single hint as to what may lie at its end.

She had decided a while ago that trying to find more holes in the ceiling or stairs climb up is pointless. After what felt like hours of wandering she only found one set of stairs in what she guessed to be an abandoned quarters, which lead her up one level. Similarly, she had wandered into a place that hadn't been damaged by any explosions, so the ceilings were holding strong above her. Guess she got lucky earlier on.

Instead she shifted her focus to looking for some sort of emergency shaft, repair tunnel, or vent network that she might be able to squeeze through. The only problem is, she has no idea how one would go about finding something of that nature. Every door she opens leads into another dark, abandoned room. And every corridor either leads to another corridor, or an elevator, which her master cautioned against using. Not that she can use them anyway since there is no electricity.

She shines her lightsaber down a T-section in the corridor, which to her disappointment, looks identical to every other corridor she's walked down. A hint of frustration creeps up her neck; part of her feels like she'll be trapped in this maze forever.

She walks, holding her lightsaber close to the wall in order to keep her bearings, the oppressive darkness can be disorientating at times. However when she looks to the wall, she notices that the patterned green wallpaper is no more, having either being covered in black or ripped off the walls completely, revealing cold metal underneath. Ahsoka frowns, she must be nearing another blast site. The next door she passes has been blown straight off its hinges, so she steps over it and into the room beyond. However once she enters, she has to take a hastily step back, as she notices that the floor has given way right in front of her.

"Woah" She exclaims quietly.

Whatever exploded in here did some damage. Not only has both the floor and ceiling collapsed. But the walls supporting a whole series of rooms have also been completely wiped away. Sadly, she notices the remains of what must once have been library shelves. Who knows what records were stored in here. She stares out into the huge, almost cavernous expanse before her, and marvels at the size of the building as a whole.

A whisper of muffled sound breaks the silence behind her. Surprised, She jumps back into the corridor, but no one's there. She reaches into the force for guidance, and it tells her that no life forms are near. Is she hearing things?

She slowly creeps along the corridor, both her lightsabers in hand. The patter of movement can be heard just ahead. Ashoka moves a littler quicker in the hopes of catching up with whatever's out there. For a split second she swears she can see something move ahead. She hastily jumps forward, but illuminates only air with her lightsabers.

"Who's there?" she calls into the darkness, but receives no reply.

She presses on, determined not to let whatever is sneaking around in here get away. Pulling her sabers into a guard position, she slowly advances down the long hallway, stepping over bits of debris as she needs to. The heavy silence is lifted only by the hum of her sabers. She squints, trying to see through the thick blackness.

The force tingles. Her entire body tenses as she moves further and further down the hall. Something is close, very close.

The force bursts to life. A high-pitched warning blares in her head and she jumps back just in time to see a vibroblade cut through the air beside her. The assassin! She swings a saber back, and the cold metal face of a droid looks back at her for a split second before retreating into the black again.

She leaps into the space it once occupied and thrusts both sabers forward. They sizzle as they make contact. An arm drops to the floor. The force screams again. A blaster shot rings out through the hall. Her blade deflects the shot back towards another droid hidden from view.

Before she knows it the droid at her side has grabbed her hand. A sharp pain erupts in her wrist as its metal claws dig carelessly into her skin. The droid leans closer, the green glow of the lightsaber illuminates its harsh, black features. She grunts in pain and swings her free arm around. Her shoto decapitates the droid, the hand griping her wrist goes limp.

A volley of shots scream towards her. Their red bolts light up the hallway in crimson for a few brief seconds, illuminating the dark wood floor and patterned wallpaper. She blocks them in quick succession, and runs towards the hidden droid at the end of the corridor. It unsheathes its own virboblade as she draws nearer.

She strikes first, but it is quick to parry. It counter-attacks with unexpected speed, she is forced cross both her sabers into an 'X' formation to block the powerful downward-swing. Her arms buckle as the droid utilizes its strength to force her backwards. Just as it is about to break through her defense she drops to the floor and rolls away.

It strikes again the second she's on her feet. She blocks and counters; quickly sweeping behind the droids guard to slice off its shoulder and neck. The head clanks to the floor. A hot pain stabs into her thigh. She screams, and falls backwards. The droids body hits the floor with a bang.

Her breathing comes heavily, she moves her hand down to her leg, and feels the cold metal of a dagger digging into her body. The droid had stabbed her before she killed it. The bone-chilling pain spreads from the focal point of the wound. She puts her lightsaber too it to see blood seeping around the edges of the dagger. Blood runs down her fingers, she grunts in pain. Her heady feels fuzzy. But she knows she has to do something.

She grabs the dagger with her hand, and takes a deep breath. After a short countdown, she grips it tighter and rips it from her thigh with a sharp tug. A cry of pain breaks from her mouth. Red, hot blood pours down her thigh and unto the floor. She'll have to bandage it or she'll bleed out.

She looks to her own clothes. Without thinking, she rips through her leggings from the knee down on the opposite leg. She pulls off a long strip of white cloth, and wraps it tightly around her wound. The stinging gets worse, and she groans in pain, but she knows if it's not tight it wont help her.

After finally securing the cloth, she falls back against the wall in despair. Adrenaline courses through her body still, every muscle tingles with anticipation. She closes her eyes and tries to calm herself. She has to contact her master, and tell him what she's found. Just as the thought comes into her head her mind runs wild at the appearance of the droids.

They must have been the ones planting the bombs, she assumes breathlessly. But who had them do it? She calls Obi-wan on her commlink. No reply. She tries again, but only receives an empty buzz.

"Dammit master, I need you," she pants.

Lowering her commlink helplessly, she turns her attention to the dark room around her. How many more of those things are out there? She realizes that her journey to floor 86 may be far more difficult than she thought.

She takes a deep breath, and pushes herself up the wall. She manages to stand, but only barely. Any attempt to put weight on her leg results in a mind-numbing explosion of pain in her thigh.

How is she going to make it up so high into the building like this? She looks around in desperation, wishing she could find something to help her stand up. She hops forward, one lightsber ignited, one hand pressed against the wall. She takes another hop, and another.

The carcass of a decapitated droid comes into view. She recognizes them to be sentinel droids, with long cylindrical heads and somewhat stiff bodies. She looks it over in confusion, wondering who they work for, and why they ordered this. Whatever the reason, it didn't justify an attack like this, who knows how many innocent people were caught in the explosions?

Ahsoka frowns in disgust at the droid. Whoever sent these things is sick. She feels her resolve flow back to her as she sets her mind on figuring this whole thing out. So what if she has a bad leg? Some stupid assassin droids aren't going to stop her. She's going to find master and help him fix this. Maybe she'll even figure out what's really going on along the way.

She hopped bravely over the droids legs, and continued down the hallway. Now, it's time to start looking for that repair tunnel.

* * *

Padme watches with bemusement, as 'senator' Skywalker forces open one of the elevator doors, revealing an empty metal shaft. She takes a few steps closer, then looks through the doors. The shaft falls for miles into darkness below, the same can be said for above too.

"This isn't a good idea," she mutters at Anakin as he analyses the walls above them. That scrutinizing face is giving her a really bad inclination as to what he's thinking.

"Sure it is," he states calmly.

He pushes past her, and turns into the shaft, using his arms to cling unto the wall just beside the door. The echoes of his movement travel up the shaft as though it were an amphitheatre, echoing endlessly in an unnerving symphony of threats and warnings. This is a really bad idea, what if an elevator comes while they're in there? That risk doesn't seem to bother Anakin though, because he is staring confidently at her.

"Get in," he orders.

"Anakin, lets just find a set of stairs, this is unnecessarily dangerous," she lectures; and she's right, they could just spend a little longer looking for a safe way up. That way they'll actually be _alive_ when they reach the top of the senate building, and not splattered against the walls.

With the look he is giving her, one could swear she is being the most unreasonable person on the planet. His lips tighten and he jerks his hand out towards her. She shrieks as he grabs her by the arm and pulls her into the shaft.

For a split second, her brain screams that she's going to fall to her death. But Anakin holds her hand tightly, so instead she slams against the wall underneath him. The loud bang reverberates throughout the shaft, as does her scream.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" she yells helplessly as she dangles beneath him.

He mutters something, and though she can't quite tell what he's saying, she is almost certain she hears "Now whose the coward?"

He re-adjusts his grip on the wall to accommodate for her weight, then looks down at her, his blue eyes sparkling dangerously with determination.

"Let go of me and grab unto the wall," he orders sharply.

Padme looks at the wall, and quickly realises that there is no way in hell she will be able to grab onto it. Anakin must have some sort of monkey-grip or (more likely) advanced training in climbing, because she can see nothing to hold onto of other than a few tiny groves between the plating of the shaft.

Even though the odds are against her. Part of her mind wants to attempt to climb the shaft independently, if only to get further away from Skywalker and his crazy, unpredictable nature. But the logical part of her screams 'don't let go, you'll die!' She frowns as her confliction boils over into anxious desperation.

"I.. I can't," she waivers with uncertainty.

"What do you mean? Just hold unto the wall," Anakin condones like this is the most obvious, simple thing in the entire universe.

"There's nothing to hold unto," she replies, finally putting her internal war to rest and deciding that she can't, in any reasonable way, climb the shaft.

Anakin doesn't initially respond, and after a few seconds he sighs loudly, like a troubled teen.

It may have been amusing, if her life weren't dependent of a man she only met hours before, who had a habit of getting her into potentially deadly situations.

"Climb towards my shoulders," he mutters begrudgingly.

At first, the order surprises her, but then as realization dawns, she figures out what the plan is; they're going to have to piggy-back-ride up the elevator. A sensation of deep-seated awkwardness makes its home on her chest. She can't _piggy-back-ride_ , with a complete stranger up an elevator shaft, that's absurd! yet she can't think of a better solution.

"Come on," he growls impatiently above her.

She sucks in a sharp breath, and decides that she will just have to grit her teeth and get on with it. Padme holds unto Anakin tightly with her right hand, while pulling herself upwards and grabbing unto his tunic with her left one. Her arms scream against her, and burn venomously; force, she really needs to start working out.

With great effort, Padme manages to shimmy up to his shoulders, she breathlessly wraps her arms around his neck while tucking her legs around his torso. She pushes her head into his shoulder, half in exhaustion and half in terror of somehow losing her grip and falling to her death. He's warm, and his body feels strong, it gives her hope that he wont tire out like she has.

"You ready?" He asks as his head moves ever so slightly back to look at her.

"Yes, don't drop me," she says, hoping her genuine fear of falling doesn't seep into her voice.

It mustn't have, because Anakin almost immediately starts to climb, without a word of reassurance given to her. He makes quick ground, though the ride is rather bumpy, since he often leaps up several centimeters seemingly at random and without warning.

As they climb higher into the shaft, Padme notices a long, black cable dangling close to the wall, if she weren't lacking in something to occupy her time, she'd probably have completely missed it. Her eyes follow it down the shaft, until it disappears into the darkness.

That's odd, she thinks. Why would there be a black cable such as that here, in an elevator shaft of all places. It looks somewhat like the ones special agents use to scale skyscrapers in holo-movies. Was someone using that cable to scale the elevator shaft? That would be silly, if they wanted to reach the top of the building, they would have just used the elevator. Padme's eyebrows knit together in contemplation. Unless... they knew they wouldn't be able to use the elevator.

Anakin stops suddenly, she feels his shoulders tense up.

"Anakin?" she asks warily.

He doesn't respond. She isn't quite sure what's happening, and he doesn't give her any time to figure it out either. Instead, he leaps with superhuman strength several feet up the elevator shaft, forces a door to one of the levels open, and throws her in. She lays there in shock as she realizes that Anakin didn't use his body to open the doors, they opened with a flick of his wrists. A second later the sound of screeching metal echoes from the elevator shaft and something black whizzes past her vision. The shaft explodes with red light, and the doors slam shut.

Her eyes wide, she stumbles to her feet and runs to the doors. Desperately she tries to force them open. The electricity isn't working on this level, and the only light is coming from the windows. Though despite the suns best efforts, the corridor remains dark, save for the occasional patch of light from a window, so she can't even see what she is doing.

Muffled banging sounds from the other side of the elevator. Panic fills her as she tires to imagine what's happening inside.

"Anakin?!" she yells helplessly, slamming her hands against the elevator shaft.

She receives no response. The banging fades into the distance, and she can't help but imagine the worst case scenario; whatever that thing is, it might have killed him. Her lips quiver with adrenaline, she takes a few steps back from the elevator door, ending in up the light of a window. Silence smothers the hallway, tiny dust particles float past her vision. The amber light of the sun is her only company.

Just as she is about to admit defeat, the doors to the elevator explode open. A black shadow fires past her, slamming into the ground a few feet away. She quickly realises it's an assassin droid. Anakin rips past her, and in mere seconds, the blood-red blade in his hands pierce the disoriented head of the droid.

His blade hums at his waist as he looks at the corpse beneath him. Padme stares with shock written all over her face; only a Sith carries a red blade. Obi-wan made that very clear. But he doesn't look like a Sith, his eyes aren't orange.

He turns to face her, and those cold, icy blue eyes scrutinize every subtle crinkle around her gaping mouth. No longer does he bear the stance of a simple senator. No, he holds himself like a warrior. The cold winds of death blow like a storm in those detached eyes. Yet despite that, Padme can't look away, those eyes are captivating. The storm, enthralling.

A long silence grips the two of them. Anakin stands in the darkness between the windows, illuminated only by the red blade of his lightsaber, the corpse of the droid at his feet. He's staring at her, unflinching. In that moment, part of her thinks he's going to kill her. But then the crimson glow of the blade disappears as it zips back into the hilt of the lightsaber.

"Let's go," he eventually mutters before stalking past her, back towards the elevator.

She watches silently as he opens the elevators again with a flick of his wrists.

"Who are you, really?" She asks cautiously, her voice soft.

He stops at the edge of the shaft, and looks back at her.

"If I told you, senator, I'd have to kill you,"

With that, he swings into the elevator, his blue eyes watching her intently.

"We need to leave now, before more droids appear,"

She swallows a nervous breath. This man... he's dangerous. Perhaps it would be best if she tried to find her way to Obi on her own. Yet, no matter how much she wants to, she knows that if she encounters one of those assassin droids on her own, she'll be killed. And she can't climb the elevator without him either.

With clenched fists, she slowly steps towards him, his eyes don't leave hers as she walks towards the elevator. They shine in the darkness, she has never seen a shade as blue and powerful as his before.

She flinches as he reaches out his hand, but she soon realizes that he's trying to help her, not hurt her. After a few seconds of hesitation, she takes his hand, and allows him to take her into the elevator. She wraps her hands around his powerful shoulders, and rests her head against his back. As he starts to climb, she focuses on controlling her breathing. With a deep exhale, she closes her eyes, and allows him to take her away.


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey all! I know I'm very, very late to the party but... happy Easter! haha, ahem. I did tell you I would manage an update eventually, whelp, here she is! Smoking hot out of the oven! Enjoy!**

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The force rumbles and groans like a sleeping giant in the distance. Its subtle touch coerces him forward until he has reaches the 86th level, then the once clear trail set out before him becomes akin to little more than a thick, murky fog that's impossible to see through. The rumbling still sounds though; echoing some danger he has yet to encounter.

"Anakin?"

His eyes snap open as reality floods his senses. He has stopped in front of the opening to the 86th level, his fingers gripping the ledge of the door. Her arms cling to his neck and shoulders, she could kill him right now. Even though his death would inevitably lead to her own demise, the thought still sets his blood pumping. Dooku said to never allow anyone the opportunity to end your life, be they friend or foe.

"Have we arrived?" She asks.

She's nervous, he can feel it radiating from her through the force. Perhaps she thinks he will drop her, or perhaps she fears his blade. It doesn't matter, she's only a senator, she doesn't deserve so much space in his mind. He shouldn't have to keep reminding himself that.

"Yes," he replies curtly as he pushes his legs off from their position in the elevator shaft and hauls the two of them up and into the corridor of the 86th level with his arms. Padme practically collapses to the floor once they're grounded. Though her brief moment of weakness, he observes, is short lived, as she stands up and assumes a dignified royal posture with astounding speed. She looks at him, her face stone cold, and a twinkle in her eyes daring him to say anything. Its an effort not to sigh.

Withholding the urge to ask her why she feels the need to act so posh all the time, Vader instead chooses to figure out where they are. The corridor, Vader admits, has most certainly seen better days. The walls have been shredded, revealing the interior wiring, and even at some small points give way to small view holes into the adjacent rooms. Only about a third of the lights on the ceiling are working, and even those are flickering on and off at erratic intervals.

The floor is covered in debris, as if someone had run down the corridor, scattering small pieces of metal and cloth along the ground. It smells too. The intense aroma of tin and sulphur permeates through the heavy, hot air; the air conditioning must be broken.

"At least some of the lights are working," Padme sighs with tired, strained optimism as she starts walking in a fool hardy manor down the hall.

Vader absently watches the way her waist moves sensuously with every step. Her dress flows around her hips in such a... wait, what the hell is he thinking?! He squeezes his eyes shut and rids his mind of the image, then sulkily marches past her.

"It is dangerous here, don't be so forthcoming," he growls at her as he takes the lead.

"I'm quite capable of taking care of myself, you know," Padme bites back as she brandishes a small blaster.

If he weren't in such a fowl mood he would have laughed. Senators are pathetic. Choosing not to get into another pointless argument with the stubborn senator, Vader simply chooses to keep marching forward in the hopes that maybe he can find Kenobi and kill him before the senator can catch up with him and nag in his ear the whole time while he does it.

The hallway seems to slowly degrade more and more as he travels through it, and the pungent odour only gets stronger. Parts of the ceiling droop to the floor, scratch marks mar the walls and the occasional mark left behind from a lightsaber dots almost every surface. He keeps his guard up as he continues down it.

"It looks like some sort of battle took place here," Padme observes as she follows him.

No kidding, he thinks. He can feel the force is screaming warnings at him, yet he can't pinpoint any danger. He has to focus on keeping his muscles relaxed and his mind focused as he continues forward.

He turns a corner to find a dead assassin droid, the head removed with the clean cut of a lightsaber. Blood is splattered across its chest. Vader steps over it, listening intently for any movement. He can hear a rhythmic banging ahead.

The door at the far end of the corridor has been forced open, it keeps jamming itself against the floor, trying again and again to close yet never succeeding. Vader approaches it and raises his hand into the air, forming a fist. The door creaks under his power, but eventually gives in and slides up fully. Revealing a large empty room on the other side.

Padme walks past him and into the room.

"Hey, wait!" Vader hisses at her as he quickly follows "I sense danger."

He jogs to the centre of the large room and looks around. There is a single working light working on the ceiling, and the only thing it has to light up is the dust particles on the dark floor. The smell is at its strongest here, despite the room being completely empty.

"I can't see anyone," Padme says, squinting and trying to see better.

"Then lets leave," Vader insists, he really doesn't like this room.

He quickly marches to the opposite door, the eerie silence disturbing him more than it should. The door opens and he steps through. This entire building feels like one giant maze, the entire thing is far too big. Only a small percentage of the building is used; it's stupid.

"Are you coming?" Vader growls impatiently. No reply, is she seriously this immature? He rolls his eyes and turns around to face her.

Padme looks at him wide-eyed. A knife at her neck. A metal hand on her mouth.

The figure jumps into the darkness above, taking Padme with it.

"Hey!" Vader roars. He sprints into the room, and jumps after it. The darkness surrounds him, but he can feel Padme's presence in the force and he follows it. The droid jumps to the top of the room and its feet stick to the ceiling. Padme flails in its arms, her muffled screams barely audible.

Vader ignites his lightsaber and grabs unto the droids leg just before he starts to fall back to the ground. It makes a series of beeps then fires a blast at him. He deflects it and swings back. Padme screeches and kicks him in the chin as his lightsaber passes inches by her face. A sharp pain smacks his jaw like a thousand tiny needles hitting him all at once.

Her kick comes as a surprise and makes him lose his balance. The droid punches him in the hand and he loses his grip, falling to the floor.

"Padme!" Vader roars in frustration.

He manages to land in a roll, and is quickly able to get to his feet. But not before the droid drops to the ground and sprints out the door he had just opened.

"E chu ta!" Vader hisses under his breadth as he bolts after the droid.

"Anakin!" Padme yells back at him as she is taken away. She fires her blaster at the droid but misses and drops it.

"Let me go!" Padme screams as she punches and kicks the droid.

The droid jumps into one of the holes in the ceiling. Vader makes a running jump after it. He pulls himself into the ceiling, which is pitch black. He is forced to crouch as the space is so small. His lightsaber keeps the space around him illuminates as he hurries after the banging sounds ahead.

The banging suddenly stops, leaving a sick feeling in Vader's throat. He charges ahead until he finds another break in the ceiling and jumps down. The first thing he sees is a sparking electrical cable dancing around a broken power generator. Then he sees and injured Rodian.

That's not Padme. The Sith grunts in anxious frustration, sprinting past the Rodian as he follows Padme's weak force signature in the distance.

"Padme?" calls a voice that he is very much certain is not his.

Vader picks up the pace down the decrepit hallway. He catches a glimpse of a white dress being pulled around the corner of a T-section. Vader charges up to it. He doesn't notice the other figure charging in the same direction from the other hall.

The two collide and he is knocked unto his butt. Vader roars in anger and flips back up.

"OUT OF MY WAY!" He bellows.

He tries to run again but accidentally trips on the person still on the floor beneath him. Vader crashes belly first unto the ground, causing a spike of pain to run through his already bruised chin.

Vader huffs out a pained breadth and rolls around to kick the stupid sentient. He stops mid kick as his eyes land on the perpetrator. Kenobi, the blasted Jedi, is lying on the ground at his feet. His perfect hair out of place and dirt covering his otherwise polished features.

"Oh, hello there. Fancy meeting you here," the weak voice at his heels greets politely.

Vader stares at the man they had spent the best part of the day looking for in shock. Obi-Wan's steel eyes look Vader over.

"I have to save Padme," Vader huffs insistently as he scrambles back to his feet again and begins running down the hall.

He can hear the Jedi's footsteps running behind him, but he pays him little notice. Vader leaps into the elevator shaft at the far end of the corridor and jumps several stories after the droids presence.

"Wait. Wait damn it!" Kenobi yells urgently after him. "Senator! Hold on!"

Vader bursts through the elevator doors to the top level and barrel rolls unto the floor. A small army of blasters having their safety clicked off rings in his ears. He looks up to see a large group of assassin droids staring at him, their guns all pointed his way.

The end of the hallway opens out into a large balcony. He can clearly see a ship docked there, and Padme's unconscious body is being loaded unto it.

The Sith Lord growls and stands to his full height. The droids heads follow him, as do their guns. His eyes sting with fowl yellow fury. His breathing slows as his chest expands menacingly, his hands clenching the blood red blade now in a guard position.

"Fire!" A droid orders, and at once he is assaulted with a shower of blaster shots. The Sith's saber spins at a speed defying human capabilities. Its deep, threatening buzzing the only thing now humming in his ears.

The bullets bounce back against the droids, and Vader smashes through them. Killing several and downing the rest. Without relenting he sprints towards the ship as it begins to take off.

"Senator, senator!" Kenobi calls breathlessly from behind.

Vader runs to the edge of the balcony and jumps into the open air, with nothing beneath him but thousands of feet of empty air.

He uses the force to give himself a burst of extra energy. His fingers just manage to grasp unto the railing at the bottom of the ship as it blasts into the air. Something heavy takes hold of his feet and he nearly loses his grip in surprise.

Vader grunts and looks down to see that damn Jedi holding unto his boot for dear life, the man's ginger hair becoming even more messy in the wind. The Jedi smiles cautiously up at him.

"Mind if I tag along?" he calls rather calmly over the howling wind surging past them, as if they aren't one slip away from falling to their deaths.

Vader grunts at him in response, losing interest and looking back at the ship. He has to find a way inside and get to Padme. He reaches out to try to grasp the railing beneath the door, but almost loses his grip again and is forced to hold the railing closest to him with both hands in order to support Kenobi's weight.

"Allow me," the Jedi states. Vader looked down, what is that blasted Jedi babbling about?

"Hey, stop! What are you doing?!" Vader roars in surprise and anger as the Jedi starts to climb up his leg.

"Don't!" Vader protests as the man grabs unto his hips.

Kenobi doesn't seem to care about how uncomfortable this entire situation is, and continues to climb up Vader until the two are chest to chest. It is suddenly very warm and awkward for Vader, as the man's eyes look into his, inches from his face. Vader pulls his head as far away from the Kenobi as possible.

Kenobi continues to climb until he is able to reach the railing by the door, then he grabs unto it and swings off Vader. He pulls himself up and tries the door.

"It's locked," Kenobi sighs, allowing himself to simply hang on the railing.

"Blast it open," Vader hisses angrily at him.

"And cause all the occupants inside, including Padme, to be sucked out into the air?" Kenobi lectures calmly.

"I'll catch her,"

"You'll fall,"

"You don't know my power!"

"Senator Skywalker, you have already demonstrated quite clearly that you must hold unto that railing with both hands or else you'll fall," Kenobi continued to lecture level-headedly.

Vader huffs and gives him the most menacing death look he can come up with.

"This ship will more than likely lead us to whoever planned this entire attack. Have patience, senator,"

"Porko wermo schutta" Vader mutters underneath his breadth. Kenobi was talking sense, but he still didn't like what he was hearing; he wanted to save Padme now. He looked towards where the ship was flying, and saw that they were being brought to the outskirts of the city.

He sighed and looked towards Kenobi.

"You better be right about this, Jedi."


End file.
